Angels in the Angelator
by Marte50
Summary: Brennan has a traumatic experience that reawakens fears from her childhood and learns the truth about her mother's death when visited by her ghost in a dream.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: (Apr. 2009) This was my first attempt at a multichapter story. This includes references to Asperger's syndrome suggested as a possible reason for Brennan's odd emotional and social difficulties. I also thought resolving more of the trauma from when her parents left was one way to help her accept Booth in her life as someone she could allow herself to count on. A ghost or two helping the process shouldn't hurt!

Disclaimer: Just playing with someone else's stuff.

Marte

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Angels in the Angelator

Chapter 1

On Monday afternoon, Angela and Brennan walked down the street after lunch at their favorite Chinese restaurant and passed by a little occult/new age bookstore. A sandwich board on the sidewalk advertised psychic readings.

"Come on, Brennan," Angela said, "let's go in. It'll be fun."

"You know I don't believe in this kind of thing. I've studied similar beliefs all around the world and it's all based on superstition just to give people an answer to the unknown," lectured Brennan, "I met a Patagonian shaman once who…"

Angela smiled, grabbed her arm and pulled her through the door. It was a well laid out brightly lit store that contained the expected selection of books, bins of crystals, gemstones and other paraphernalia. The air was lightly fragrant with sandalwood incense. The back of the store was set up as a tea room with a central table that held a crystal ball on a brightly colored brocade tablecloth. Beside the ball was a shiny roughly rectangular shape that was likely to be a deck of tarot cards wrapped in a piece of silk. A blond haired young woman stood behind the counter and nearby, at one of the bistro tables, sat a little girl about 4 years old in a red jumper coloring on a pad of paper.

"Come in," welcomed the young woman with a slight southern accent. "I was just going to make myself some tea. Would you like some? It is free with a reading."

"Sure, that would be great, thank you. Jasmine green tea would be nice if you have it," replied Angela, "Actually, I was interested in tarot readings for myself and my friend," Angela indicated Brennan who wandered in a distracted manner around the store and picked up things at random to inspect.

The woman looked questioningly at Brennan before getting her attention. "Yes, that would be fine for me as well, thank you," said Brennan. The little girl looked up from her drawing and smiled shyly in Brennan's direction as she moved around the store.

Angela approached the little girl and glanced at her unusually detailed drawing of a garden scene, saying, "Hi, my name is Angela. Your picture is very good. I like drawing pictures too."

"Thanks, I'm Anna," said the little girl. "This one's for Momma," nodding in the direction of the storekeeper making cups of tea. "What do you draw?"

"Mostly people's faces, but I like gardens, too," replied Angela.

Anna looked at Angela as if to say something else, but became shy and focused her attention back to her drawing.

Anna's mother returned carrying a tray with several mugs, a glass of milk and cream and sugar containers. She placed it down on a table closest to the one set up for readings, handed the mugs around and placed the milk where Anna was seated. Brennan sat down at one of the tables with her mug.

"My name is Karina Maisson. Who would like to go first?" said Karina, before seating herself at the reading table.

"I will. I'm Angela Montenegro and my friend is Dr. Temperance Brennan," Angela said, as she made herself comfortable across from the young woman.

"Oh, what a surprise. I've enjoyed reading your books, Dr. Brennan," she said with a smile at Brennan who was pleased with the praise. "Well, let's get started then. Are you familiar with the tarot, Angela? Have you ever had a reading before?" asked Karina as she prepared her cards for the reading.

'A little. A friend, years ago, tried to teach herself to do readings and I was one of her practice subjects," answered Angela.

Karina began to lay cards on the table when her daughter came up to her, patted her arm and whispered, "Momma, Momma?"

"It's okay, I don't mind," said Angela who understood that having children around usually lead to interruptions.

Karina looked down at her young daughter and said, "What is it, baby?"

Anna whispered cautiously, "Momma, I have a message for Doc-or B-enan," Her little girl voice was not yet able to completely pronounce some sounds.

"All right, baby, remember to ask her permission," replied Karina.

Anna gathered her courage and approached Brennan sitting at a nearby table. "Can I tell you something? Someone wants to tell you something," she said.

Brennan looked at the girl's mother hoping for an explanation. "Ever since she started to speak, Anna has been able to communicate messages she receives from those who have passed on. I am very careful who I let her approach with her messages."

Brennan spoke carefully to Anna, "I don't want to hurt your feelings, Anna, but I don't believe in messages from the dead."

"That's okay, it doesn't matter. Didn't you know you get messages from dead people all the time? When you find their bones, they help you understand them." Anna said seriously.

Brennan had met psychics before who tried to hook her with some profound prediction but, for some reason, this child had her genuinely spooked at hearing this appraisal of her work. Apart from believing she was a generally moral and law-abiding person, she had rejected the notion of God and life after death as being empirically without proof. Her studies had revealed so many cultural variations that she was convinced that religion was just a function of society. Her life's meaning came directly from her work and personal relationships, not devotion to a faith.

"Your Momma Ruth loves you very much and she's real happy you found her and she's sorry she and your daddy had to go away," said Anna, her words tumbled out all at once. After a moment to catch her breath, she continued, "there were a lot of spirit people with you when you came into the store. She said that she's with you all the time to protect you so the other spirits don't get in the way. Ruth told me about what you do when you find people's bones. You help a lot of people. She worries about your daddy and your brother though. They do bad things sometimes. She's glad they came back and you're not alone anymore. I was making my picture for Momma but Ruth wants me to give it to you. She asked me to add some things just for you."

Anna went back to her table, worked on the picture for a few minutes, tore it out of its pad and came back to Brennan to give her the picture. Brennan was stunned when she looked at it but managed to give Anna a smile and said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," said Anna.

Just at that moment, Brennan's cell phone rang. She quickly answered it, simply saying, "Brennan," folded the picture carefully and placed it in her handbag. "All right, I'm with Angela. I'll drop her off at work and meet you there in ten minutes."

"I'm sorry, Angela, but we have to go right away. A case has come up," said Brennan, trying not to sound relieved at being able to leave.

"Momma, I'm going to go play with my dollies, okay?" said Anna. She took a quick look at a spot behind Brennan. "Oh, Ruth just said she's happy Booth is your friend. He likes you a lot," giggled Anna, "and keeps you safe all the time. She wants you to tell Max and Kyle that she's okay and loves them both, too. Max can explain the picture." With that said, Anna ran to the back of the store where her things were.

"I'm sorry, I'll have to come back later," said Angela. "Here, let me pay for my reading in advance." She followed Karina over to the cash register and quickly paid the fee.

The two friends hurried to leave the store and almost collided with a delivery man on his way in with a large package. A dozen steps more found them tossed into the street like rag dolls as an explosion caught them with a deafening whirlwind of sound. The old building was soon engulfed in flames as sirens in the distance grew louder.

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All comments, suggestions, etc gratefully accepted.

You do want to know if they are all right? What could possibly be so shocking in a child's drawing? Right?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Angela woke to the sound of someone entering the hospital room. She was curled up with a blanket in a large chair in a corner of the darkened room. She looked up to see Booth walk in with his entire focus and concern directed to his partner lying in the bed. Booth gently picked up Brennan's cool right hand between both of his own.

"She's going to be okay," said Angela after he had been standing watching Brennan for a couple of minutes.

"I know, I just spoke to her doctor. She said that if all of her tests came back clear, then they could release her once she's awake. I know she's been mostly unconscious since they brought you both in and the meds will keep her out for a few hours," explained Booth.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, as he looked over at Angela and saw the scrapes and bruises on her face and arms.

"I'm okay, just stiff and sore. I'll be colorful in a couple of days. Brennan got the worst of it," said Angela, standing up to move to the other side of Brennan's bed and picked up her other hand.

Brennan felt familiar warmth seep into her and knew that she was safe. Hearing voices that she recognized, she struggled to wake up but her brain wouldn't work as she expected. Booth's concerned face was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes and focused after a bit of effort. She could see relief in his eyes and something deeper that triggered a warm flush through her body. After a moment, she mumbled, "What happened?" looking back and forth from Angela's injuries to Booth.

"Hi, sweetie," said Angela. "All you need to know now is that I'm all right. I'll talk to you later when you have had some rest," Angela quickly gave Brennan a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey, Bones," Booth said softly, "I guess it was your turn to get blown up! You're going to be okay. You just got banged up a bit. If all goes well, you can go home tonight. Go back to sleep. I'll see you later."

Brennan closed her eyes and seemed to fall asleep almost instantly.

"I'll meet you out in the hall. I have to call Hodgins so he doesn't rush down here to make sure I still have all my fingers and toes," said Angela, with a laugh.

She gathered her stuff quickly and left the room knowing Booth would appreciate a moment alone with Brennan. As she turned to have a last look at Brennan, she saw Booth move a lock of her hair out of her eyes and lean over to kiss her gently on the forehead.

If she weren't so "blown up" herself, she would have jumped up and down for joy. Things were definitely heating up between these two. She still hadn't caught up with Caroline Julian to find out about their mistletoe kiss. The rumors of that were hot enough. After a moment longer with Brennan, Booth joined Angela in the hallway.

"I want to check in on Anna. I know they brought her here, too. I hope they can find her family now that her mother's gone. Can you wait a moment and take me back to the Institute?" asked Angela.

"Sure, no problem," replied Booth.

As they walked towards the pediatrics ward, Booth was quiet and appeared distracted by some inner turmoil.

"I should have been there!" he suddenly blurted out.

"You know you can't be everywhere Brennan is," Angela said, to reassure him. "You couldn't have known that you would be called into court this morning at the last minute. You had no choice but to break your lunch date with Brennan. She knows that."

Booth, of course, knew this but didn't feel any better. Apart from his growing feelings for Brennan, it was his job to keep her safe. He thought back to the court case that he had been called in unexpectedly today to testify. He knew that Brennan had on occasion been called upon to explain their working relationship on the witness stand but today had been his first experience in several months.

It also didn't help that Caroline Julian was the prosecuting attorney for this case. Defense tactics proved to be a bit sloppy and she had been forced to object when the defense tried to discredit Booth's testimony, accusing him of being distracted by a personal relationship with his partner. Defense had tried to enter into evidence some testimony about some overheard banter between them at the crime scene and some lost evidence. He almost had to respond to the direct question, "Are you in love with your partner, Agent Booth?"

Caroline was easily able to object and, with the judge's support, to have it removed from the court record. Booth found he was unusually rattled by it. He concluded his testimony with the usual answer. He explained that he was the appointed FBI liaison to Brennan and her team at the Jeffersonian Institute and they were called in when their particular specialties were required on a case-by-case basis.

"I heard what happened in court today," said Angela, with a quirky grin on her face.

"Now, how the h-ll did you hear about that!" said Booth. He could never figure out how Angela always had up-to-the-minute gossip on every one.

"A friend of mine was in the court room," replied Angela. "Actually she called me on my cell while I was waiting in emergency. It was a quick call or, I imagine, the nurses would have taken it away from me. I know they allow them in some areas but not near medical equipment."

When they reached the nurses station at Pediatrics, they were told that Anna was still unconscious and were directed to the department's ICU. They would be allowed to make a short visit, especially since there were no family members yet found to be informed of the little girl's condition.

It was a shock for both of them when they saw Anna. They were confronted with one of those scenes guaranteed to make their hearts ache. The little girl looked so small in the standard sized hospital bed with monitoring wires stuck on her body almost everywhere not already covered by bandages for cuts and burns. A cast covered most of her left arm and a respirator assisted her breathing as a precaution against the effects of smoke inhalation.

After introducing themselves to the attending doctor, they were reassured that her visible injuries were not severe and would heal quickly. Their current worry was the possibility that she might slip into a coma. Anna had been very lucky when the bomb exploded. Playing at the back of the store protected her from the worst of the blast that instantly killed her mother and the deliveryman. Firefighters had found her unconscious under an overturned couch.

Angela went to the side of her bed, touched her hand and said, "Hi, sweetie. It's Angela. Do you remember me? Dr. Brennan's friend Booth is here with me too. We hope you get better soon. I have to go now but, I promise that I will see you later." She gently touched the girl's cheek and then left the room with Booth.

_[Anna knew something bad had happened but couldn't remember what it was. When she saw two people come into the room, she didn't know who they were. After the woman spoke, she remembered meeting them earlier. The doctor's mother had wanted Anna to pass on a message. She remembered being told about Booth, as well. She didn't know where her Momma was but was glad there was someone nice to come visit her. This__ helped a little but she really wanted her Momma._

_She needed to sort out why she was sitting on the chair beside the bed wearing her favorite red jumper when she could also see herself covered with wires and stuff. She didn't feel like she was lying on the bed. It was all very confusing. She could move her arms and legs while sitting on the chair but nothing she tried would move the arms and legs of the person just like her on the bed. _

_She remembered what her Momma had told her about spirit people leaving their old bodies behind when they died and went to heaven but she knew she wasn't dead. She didn't know this could happen when you weren't dead. She decided the person in bed must be asleep but she felt wide-awake. If the body in the bed was hers, she was afraid to think about waking up. All those bandages meant waking up was going to hurt. She remembered she fell down last week and scraped her knees. That hurt a lot but her Momma took care of them and they only hurt for a little while._

_She suddenly realized that Angela and Booth were leaving and decided quickly to follow them. Maybe they would be able to help her find her mother. She jumped up, took a quick look at herself in the bed and ran after them. If she wasn't so worried about her mother, this might actually be fun._

Angela and Booth left the hospital. On the way, Angela tried to use her cell phone to let Hodgins know she was on her way back to work but all she got was static. She wasn't sure what was wrong since it had worked quite fine an hour ago. Even the SUV's radio wouldn't work. Too worried about other things, they both just ignored these occurrences as irritating problems of technology that never worked when you needed them. They stopped by Brennan's apartment so Angela could pick up some clothes for her that Booth would take back to the hospital later.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Hodgins was the first to see Angela and Booth when they entered the Lab. Followed closely by Zack, he rushed down the platform stairs to meet them.

"Angela, finally. Don't do this to me. I'm used to worrying about government conspiracies, not thinking about you getting 'blown up'," said Hodgins as he fussed over her various injuries.

"Oh, Hodgie, I'm fine," reassured Angela. "Can you give me a little time? I still have to write up my statement for Booth before I forget the details. I also need to start working on a drawing of Karina, as well."

"Karina?" asked Hodgins.

"She's the woman from the bookstore that blew up," explained Angela.

"All right. I warn you, though. I intend to hover," said Hodgins relieved that his fiancée was not seriously hurt. They left the platform area and canoodled affectionately as they made their way to Angela's office. _[Anna followed them, not wanting to get lost._

"How is Dr. Brennan, Seeley," asked Cam, coming from her office for an update.

"She'll be fine. She'll need a few days to heal. Bruised ribs and concussion are the worst. If her tests come back okay, they'll release her tonight. She should take a few days off but we both know that won't happen. She will probably be back to work sometime tomorrow," said Booth adding, "Have the remains arrived yet?"

"Yes, I was just informed they are being unloaded right now. We can start identifying them as soon as they are brought up. How is the little girl? I understand the dead woman had a young daughter found alive in the debris," asked Cam.

"She has a broken arm, some cuts and burns. She's still unconscious and the doctors are hoping she hasn't had any trauma to the brain. They're afraid she might go into a coma if she doesn't wake up soon. Hopefully, we can locate her family," replied Booth.

"The property management company that owned the bookstore may have information on her mother. Witnesses at the scene said that Karina Maisson had opened her bookstore a couple of months ago. We'll also be following up on the delivery service, too. We were able to trace the vehicle and it hadn't been reported stolen," He turned to leave and added, "I'll check back later."

Two hours later - [_Anna wandered around the office while Angela worked on her drawing. A book on a table looked interesting. It was open to pages showing several drawings of colorful butterflies. She had found it very hard to pick up anything but was able to turn the page_.

Angela caught movement out of the corner of her eye and was startled to see a page of one of Hodgins' insect books left open on the table move by itself. Deciding it must have been a breeze from their sometimes-erratic ventilation system, she returned to her task of completing her memory drawing of Karina. She knew that within a few hours, Karina's skeleton would be ready to be examined. Zack had informed her that Cam had completed her preliminary exam of both victims. Due to extensive burn damage, she had authorized that Karina's remains be turned over to Zack's beloved flesh-eating beetles for cleaning.

[_Anna had discovered that no one seemed to see her. She really must be a spirit person. Her mother always told her that she was special because she was one of the few who could see spirits. Feeling bored, she left Angela's office and walked down the hall. She passed an office where a woman sat at a desk talking on the phone. Moving along, she next came to a room with a huge glass case full of big bugs in the middle of the floor. They were crawling all over something but there were so many of them, she couldn't tell what it was. Anna really didn't like these bugs so she quickly ran back to find Angela_.

(During the same time frame)

Cam's desk phone rang. "Saroyan," she answered.

"Hi, Cam. We were able to match the partial prints from the male victim you examined. He came up as Harold Walters, age 39. He was a legitimate employee of the delivery service but the parcel he dropped off wasn't included on his log sheets. He was known to local police for small time stuff and had been reprimanded by his boss a few times for taking deliveries on the side. I'll fax over the full details right away. Our bomb crew is still sifting through the debris collected at the scene but so far, we know that the timing mechanism was an ordinary alarm clock. I know it's not much to go on. Still, no idea who did this or who was the intended target," said Booth, as he filled her in on the latest developments.

"Anything on the woman and her daughter?" Cam asked.

"Still tracking down next-of-kin but the forensic team located Karina Maisson's handbag and her ID's checked out. A team is going through her apartment now. Apparently she was from New Orleans. She moved around a bit, since leaving home after 'Katrina'. At least that's what she told the property management staff that rented the store space to her last November. She paid her rent on time."

"That's excellent progress, Seeley," Cam said. "I hope for the little girl's sake, they can find her family."

"Yeah, I know. I'm on my way back to the hospital to pick up Bones, now. Hopefully, she's ready to be released. If you need to find me, I'll be at her place tonight," said Booth.

"Oh?...Well I hope she's feeling better. I'll talk to you tomorrow," Cam said then ended the call.

She knew she really had no claim on Booth except as friends but the obvious connection between him and Brennan still gave her unexpected pangs of jealousy whenever she saw them together. He had ended their relationship saying that he felt it was too dangerous to be involved with someone he worked with. Considering what she saw between Booth and Brennan, he may just have to eat those words.

She was okay with things as they stood between her and Booth. It wouldn't have worked out between them anyway and had been just for fun, despite a strong affection that still lingered between them. At that moment she was startled to see a little girl wearing something red pass her doorway, running down the hall. It was probably a child from a nearby tour group. This seemed to happen fairly often. She wasn't yet used to working in such a public area. Working in one of the country's most famous museums got a bit crowded at times.

She left her office to make sure security caught up with the errant child, but when she looked down the hall, there was nothing there except Angela walking toward the imaging lab. She called security but they hadn't seen anyone that fit her description.

_[Anna followed Angela into the lab containing their three dimensional holographic projector affectionately named the "Angelator". All Anna saw was a large black box in the middle of the room with buttons and knobs connected to a computer. Angela turned on the machine and wrote something onto a computer screen. In a moment, a skull and then a woman's face appeared among the sparkly lights. _

_Anna was amazed to recognize the face. "Momma!," she said to herself, continuing to stare at the image. She touched the light table and a moment later, Anna found herself standing on its surface reaching up to touch the face. As she did, the face turned around in a circle_ and came _back to look at Anna with a happy smile. Now she could see her mother all of the way down to her waist. She knew her mother had found her and she was overjoyed. Karina, happy to see her daughter, reached down, picked her up and held her in a big hug. "Hi, baby," Anna's mother, whispered. A moment later, they both disappeared._

Angela entered several calculations into the Angelator's interface tablet from her examination of Karina's skull that lay in fragments nearby on a metal tray. She looked up to check her results. The translucent image changed from the original skull structure to one that included an overlay of muscle tissue and finally realistic facial features. Comparing her drawing with the facial reconstruction, Angela was pleased with her results and finally gave in to feelings of utter exhaustion. She could soon collect Hodgins and then head home.

She looked up at the Angelator's image, ready to power down the complicated and very expensive machine. She knew she was tired but what she saw took her breath away. Before her eyes, she saw a body miraculously fill in down to the waist with arms that held a little girl exactly like Anna had looked earlier that day. The 3D image's facial expressions had changed from its initial static blank look and now had a beautiful natural smile. The head turned to look down at the image of Anna in her arms.

Angela looked down at the computer display to check it's settings, but found they were exactly as she had entered. Taking a deep breath, Angela closed her eyes. When she reopened them a minute later and looked back up, she saw her original facial reconstruction superimposed on the underlying features of the skull.

"Hey, Angela, are you ready to go home yet?" urged Hodgins as he entered the lab. He called her name again but got no response. Noticing Angela's odd expression, he said, with a concern in his voice, "Angela…Angela…are you okay?"

"What…oh, ummm…yeah. Did you just see anything odd up there?" She said, indicating the machine.

"No. Just your usual high standard of excellent work," he said, trying a little flattery to get a smile out of her. He was getting worried about Angela's state of mind. Her unusual day must be catching up with her.

"Umm, thanks," Angela said, giving Hodgins a reassuring smile, "Let's get out of here. I'm exhausted."

She turned off the machine, collected her papers and the tray of skull fragments that she needed to return to the examination table where the rest of the remains were laid out. As she left the lab, she turned to give a puzzled look at the Angelator and turned out the lights.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Brennan was awake when she heard her door open. She had been sleeping fitfully all afternoon without feeling any better for it. It was probably the pain meds they had given her. She had injured her ribs on another occasion and knew the drugs were helpful at this point in her recovery. She anticipated at least a week of difficulties breathing and moving in any kind of pain-free fashion.

While she drifted in and out of sleep, she thought about her visit with Angela after lunch to the bookstore and the events before the explosion. The last time she had awakened for a few minutes, one of the nurses had been kind enough to check on Anna's condition for her. Accepting as fact that this little girl of only four years of age had communicated with her mother's spirit right there in the store was just too much for Brennan to consider.

As thought provoking as this all was, the little girl's current situation was more important. She knew from her own painful experience what probably awaited Anna if she ended up "in the system" and hoped that Booth would be able to locate family who would take her in and care for her. She could empathize with this child's situation. Her own memories of this time in her life triggered sad tears that escaped and rolled down her cheeks.

"Hey, Bones. Are you ready to go home? How are you doing?" Booth said, as he entered the room carrying a small overnight bag and approached her bed.

"I'm okay, really," she replied. She quickly wiped her tears and tried to give her partner a smile to reassure him she was fine. She knew he had been worried and appreciated his concern. His friendship had become a stabilizing force in her life and she knew she relied on his strength and understanding. She always felt safe and secure with him.

Booth could tell instantly that she clearly wasn't 'okay' at the moment. Oh, he knew her injuries would heal, but right now, she was being bothered by something usurping her energy. She looked like she'd been crying so he chose a gentle approach and hoped it didn't earn him a reaction labeled as condescending.

Angela had submitted her statement with a separate set of extra details just for Booth that weren't required in the official report. She knew Booth would appreciate as much personal information concerning Brennan as possible. He didn't accept the spiritualist world view any more than he knew Brennan did, but with everything he knew about her life, he could easily recognize the potential for problems here.

"The doctor just told me you're cleared to go home. There's one condition, though. I'm staying with you tonight and no arguments!" he said, knowing, of course, at least one was guaranteed with his partner.

"Booth, I…" Brennan said as she attempted half-heartedly to object even though she didn't really want to be alone tonight.

"No, I insist," said Booth.

"Thank you. I appreciate your help," conceded Brennan, looking up to meet his eyes with her own.

"Okay, then," Booth said, a little taken aback that this had been so easy. "I had Angela pick up some suitable clothes for you." He indicated the bag he had brought with him.

"Give me a few minutes to change and we can get going. Umm…Booth, could you help me to that chair over there? I'm feeling dizzy from the medication they gave me," she reluctantly asked, looking up at him.

"Sure, just take it easy," reassured Booth, knowing it had taken a lot for Bones to ask for help. Brennan tried not to be self-conscious about the "oh-so-NOT-fashionable" hospital gown she had been dressed in, as she peeled back the blankets and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She slowly stood up when suddenly pain nearly took her breath away as an imaginary ice pick seemed to be driven into her side. Caught in a wave of pain and dizziness, she tumbled into Booth's arms as her knees buckled. To catch her balance, she threw her arms around his neck for support as she got her legs back under control. Tears rose to her eyes from the sudden pain.

"Breath slowly, Bones, take your time," he said gently, holding her close and steady. The closeness they shared at that moment reminded him of the mistletoe kiss of a couple of months ago. It took self-control not to blush as he felt heat rise into his face while he looked into Brennan's eyes. He wiped her tears away with his thumb and, after a moment, led her over to a chair.

"I'll wait outside. Call if you need help. I won't be far," Booth said, giving her the necessary privacy to get ready.

Brennan was happy with Angela's choices as she looked through the bag's contents. Being so close to Booth just then had her remembering their mistletoe kiss as well. She had no idea why Caroline had been 'puckish' but she definitely found herself taking mental notes of Booth's participation in their kiss. They hadn't really dealt with that experience but they had been able to avoid that "weird" feeling between each other when they continued working on cases after Christmas. There was an unspoken tenderness without being sappy in their relationship although their discussions could be as heated as ever.

Brennan finished dressing by slipping on the moccasin style shoes that Angela had picked out from her closet. She gathered the rest of her things and left the room, walking with care to hopefully avoid the worst twinges of pain.

"Did you check on Anna's condition?" asked Brennan when she joined Booth at the nearby nurses' station.

"Yes, she has stabilized nicely. Her doctors are pleased with her progress so far but she hasn't awakened yet. They don't seem as worried about the possibility of a coma. Her brain function has remained strong. Did you want to see her before we go?" Booth asked after he passed on the doctor's report.

"Yes, I would. Just for a minute," said Brennan. She took care of the necessary discharge papers and they started their way up to Pediatrics. When they arrived, they discovered Anna had been moved out of ICU and into a semi-private room close to the nurses' station. Booth was relieved to see Anna looking more like a normally sleeping little girl. She still had a couple of monitors attached to her but all things considered, she looked much better. Someone had given her a little teddy bear, tucked near her hand where she could reach it.

Even though she felt awkward, Brennan went up to Anna and gently picked up her uninjured hand. She spoke just a few words of encouragement to get well soon and concluded with the promise to come and see her when she was awake. Brennan gently placed Anna's little hand on the teddy bear. Anna quickly snuggled the bear close to her, mumbled something to herself but stayed asleep. Both reassured by the little girl's prognosis, they left the hospital. On the way to Brennan's apartment, Booth filled Brennan in on the progress of the case so far. They agreed it was frustrating to not know what it was all about.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Booth helped Brennan into her apartment as she was still feeling dizzy from her ordeal and then went back to the SUV for their bags. He always carried a stocked overnight bag in his vehicle and never knew when he might need it. Back in the apartment, he was greeted by the sounds of running water and realized that Brennan was in the shower.

He called in to work to report his location, required whenever he was on an active case and also to Angela, letting her know of both Brennan's and Anna's progress. Hodgins answered the phone and took his message as he had already sent an exhausted Angela to bed. There was no news about the origin of the bomb so the investigation had ground to a sluggish halt. The worst part about that was that new movement on a case like this usually meant waiting for another bomb to go off.

They had identified Anna's grandparents but had as yet not been able to contact them. That, at least, was reassuring. With that done, he busied himself by putting his things into Brennan's guest room and went into the kitchen to make tea for them both. Brennan soon came out looking much better, wearing a comfortable set of flannel PJs. The heat of the shower had helped her muscles relax so she was able to walk more steadily.

"Here, have some tea. It should help you sleep," offered Booth, placing a mug beside the easy chair where she had just carefully settled herself.

"Thanks, Booth," replied a weary Brennan. As they sipped their tea in an easy companionable silence, she could feel the tension of her day slip away. After a few minutes, she finished her cup and began to yawn. Seeing her in danger of falling asleep in her chair, Booth helped her up, followed her into her bedroom and watched over her as she got herself comfortable in bed.

"Let me know if you need anything, Bones. Good night." Booth said, as he left the room, leaving the door slightly ajar.

"Good night, Booth," Brennan responded before imminent sleep caught up to her.

Booth cleaned up the tea mugs and checked out what Bones had available in her kitchen to prepare for breakfast in the morning. He found enough basics to make do, secured the apartment for the night and settled himself into the guest room. He changed into a tank-style undershirt and a pair of colorful PJ pants that featured little green alligators that had been a Christmas gift from Parker. He quickly finished writing up some case notes and was soon asleep.

A few hours later, Booth was jolted out of a sound sleep by a woman's voice screaming that he instantly recognized as Bones. He rushed into her cool darkened bedroom and found her thrashing about in her bed mumbling incoherently to herself, obviously in distress.

A recurring dream from childhood started its old repeating script. Even though a part of Brennan's mind recognized the scenario, she couldn't stop herself from feeling terrified. She was lost in the woods being followed by a pack of wolves that she could see only by their bright pairs of eyes and hearing them growl. They chased her through the brush. She screamed as she ran, feeling the branches whip and claw at her. Instead of screaming herself awake in a cold sweat, this time, it took an unusual turn. She stopped to catch her breath and suddenly, her mother was standing nearby looking just like she remembered. She even had her dolphin belt on.

"Temperance, stop running, dear. There's nothing to be afraid of – not anymore," her mother said, as she came forward to hold her frightened daughter in her arms.

"Mom, where were you? You never came back," said Brennan, with anguish in her voice and tears running down her face.

"It was for you and Russ – to protect you. You know we had no choice. I know you were hurt and angry for a long time. I'm so sorry," she said, "Always remember I love you. You'll understand when you find Beth."

"Beth? Who's Beth, Mom?" asked Brennan.

"She was your sister," Ruth Keenan said as she stepped away from her daughter and seemed to melt into the surrounding wood. Brennan tried to run after her, calling out "Mom" as she searched first one way and then another.

"Bones, Temperance…Temperance. You're safe. Nothing can hurt you," Booth called her name and hoped to calm her as quickly as possible, concerned that she would aggravate her injuries with her sudden movements. He was amazed that she wasn't already in severe pain as it was. He sat on the edge of her bed, gathered her up into his arms and continued to speak in reassuring tones while he stroked her back. At his touch, Brennan wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. Her ragged breathing soon slowed to an easier controlled rhythm. He could feel her breath on his neck and tears on her face slid down to be absorbed by his shirt.

After several minutes of being in Booth's arms, Brennan lifted her head from his shoulder, moved her cheek along his jaw line and found his lips with her own. Her increasingly passionate kiss eroded away the carefully laid controls he had created around his attraction to his brilliant and beautiful partner. Hastily patched cracks in his resolve to remain partners and "just friends" after the mistletoe kiss broke open and all restraint now crumbled to dust.

Booth happily enjoyed this unexpected fulfillment of a favorite fantasy when he realized something that regretfully caused him to rein back his unleashed passion. His experiences consoling Parker during night frights reminded him of the possibility that Brennan may not even be awake and aware of what was happening. Parker could be consoled, somehow knowing his father was with him and keeping him safe, but he usually didn't wake up from the trauma of his dreams.

He also knew that tonight was not the appropriate time for their relationship to advance in any way due to her injuries and other ever-present issues. Knowing she could respond to his touch in such an amazing way like this, gave him the strength to gently pull back. He fervently hoped he would have another opportunity when she was fully able to participate consciously.

"Bones, you need to sleep…you're safe," said Booth softly. He laid her gently back onto her pillow, smoothed her hair and gave her another kiss. With her eyes still closed and a smile on her face instead of tears, she gave a contented sigh as he pulled the bed covers back over her. Booth wondered if she had experienced their passionate moment within her dream and had the horrible fleeting thought that her dream rescuer might have been Sully.

At that moment, he heard her mumble as she felt him move away from her, suddenly feeling a cold chill, "Booth, stay with me!"

Feeling both foolish and relieved, he said, "I won't leave you, Bones, I promise." To keep his word, Booth fell asleep in a reclining chair in a corner of the large room.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next morning, Brennan woke up to her bedroom filled with bright sunshine. She felt better than she expected and had tolerated worse as aches and pains were still there if she moved wrong. Thankfully, the anguished emotions of yesterday were gone.

She looked across the room and was surprised to see Booth asleep in the recliner where she did most of her reading and writing. He was covered with the quilt she kept draped over the back of the chair. She wondered why he was there and suddenly it came to her. She remembered having a nightmare last night, a recurring one from the time just after her parents had disappeared when she was fifteen. She had a lot of problems sleeping as a teen. It was usually brought on by stress and she had certainly had enough to warrant it. This one, however, ended differently. She had seen her mother who told her to find her sister, Beth. How can she have a sister, Brennan wondered?

The next thing she remembered was waking up from the dream to find herself in Booth's arms. The rest all came back to her in waves of vivid detail. She had felt safe in his arms after being frightened by her dream. She remembered strongly wanting to kiss him…and then she did… they did….a lot. At the time, it all seemed dream-like but the fact that she could remember every detail told her that the part with Booth, at least, couldn't be a dream but had actually happened. Even details of dreaming about her mother were fading. She could still feel the warmth of his touch on her lips. No doubt, last night Booth heard her calling out and came running.

She knew, this time, she wasn't going to get away with passing this experience off as "nothing" and "totally sexless". Maybe she could try something like "emotional and physical release after trauma but otherwise meaningless".

No, she knew it was time to be honest about herself to Booth. If he was the man she believed him to be, their partnership would be okay and maybe they could go back to being "just friends" without too much fuss. He needed to understand why it was difficult for her to express herself about emotions and why she reacted to certain things in a seemingly odd way. She accepted the fact that he was important to her and affected her deeply. She just didn't know what to do about it.

He had an amazing ability to tell when people were lying or avoiding the truth and she probably wouldn't get away with trying to, anyway. She had watched him interview too many people to doubt that. He could read people so well and understood their motivations. She had learned a lot from watching him over the years they had worked together.

She needed to think and decided a quick hot shower would help ease her bruised muscles and confused mind. She had a million thoughts that ran circles in her mind and tried to logically sort them out.

Booth woke up to the sounds of the shower and seeing an empty bed, knew where Bones was. He was a bit stiff from sleeping in the chair but it was actually more comfortable than he had expected. He got up, stretched, folded the quilt and returned it to the back of the chair. Returning to the guest room, he changed his clothes and went into the kitchen to start coffee and something for breakfast.

While he waited for the coffee to brew and bread to toast, he thought about what had happened with Brennan last night. He didn't know if Brennan would wake up remembering anything had happened at all. If she did, would she decide to ignore it? Should he bring it up if she didn't? Was it the right time to deal with something new in their relationship? He decided if he got any inkling that she remembered, he wouldn't be able to let it pass. He knew this could cause problems if not handled properly.

Booth was surprised to see how refreshed and relaxed Brennan seemed when she came out to the kitchen. As expected, she was dressed for work in a casual but classy outfit of pants, light sweater and dark blazer. He handed her a cup of coffee and offered some toast.

"Well, you look like you're feeling much better today," said Booth with one of his trademark heart melting smiles.

"Yes, I am, thank you." said Brennan with what she hoped was a bright smile of her own. She made herself comfortable at the breakfast bar and sat next to Booth.

"Did you want anything more for breakfast? I make great omelettes," offered Booth.

"No thanks," replied Brennan, "Coffee and toast is usually all I do for breakfast. Thanks for making it."

"You're welcome," replied Booth, not sure if this exchange of small talk was suspicious or not.

Brennan looked at Booth and gathered her courage to ask "Why did you slept in my room last night?" Now that the question was out, she was unsure if she was ready for the answer.

"Do you remember waking up from a nightmare or something last night?" said Booth, responding with his own question as he watched her carefully for any clues to what she might remember.

"I had one of those dreams I used to have after my parents disappeared. Wolves chase me through the woods until I wake up screaming. I'm always terrified of something but when I wake up, I can never remember why," explained Brennan, not yet ready to reveal the "meeting her Mom" part of her dream.

"I heard you scream and ran in to check on you. Something had you upset. You were thrashing about so much I was afraid you might hurt yourself. When you settled down, I decided to stay just in case," replied Booth, "That's usually what I do when Parker has nightmares."

Brennan hesitated a moment, made her decision and reached over to cover his hand with her own and looked into Booth's eyes.

"Thank you, Booth, for being there for me. Yesterday was very overwhelming. There's a couple of things you don't know about yet but I'll get to them in a minute. I know something happened between us last night. I woke up from my dream and you were there," she said, watching him intently and then looked away for a second, before she forced herself to look at him.

"Yes, something did. I didn't know if you were really awake," said Booth, cautiously.

"Well, mostly awake. I don't regret what happened. It was a lot like the times I would hug you when I was scared of something. You always make me feel safe, Booth, and I can't imagine my life without you, but there's something about me that you don't know. Angela knows but I've never told anyone else. Do you know what Asperger's syndrome is?" Brennan began, nervously.

Booth knew that he had heard about this before but couldn't quite place it. Then it came to him. He thought about some of Bones' odd behavior and things started to click into place. Her awkward social skills, the focus on brain chemistry to explain emotions as physical reactions, from sex to motherhood, often brought up in conversation at odd times and difficulties with relationships all seemed to make sense in the context of this new information.

"Yes, it took me a moment but now I remember. When Rebecca was pregnant, she started doing all this research into parenting and childcare. Sometimes, she would get paranoid about something going wrong with the baby. One of her friends, from the childbirth classes we went to, told her about a family member whose baby was autistic. She started reading up on this and anything else she thought of and kept giving me things to read, expecting me to be able to keep up with her. I remember Asperger's is a related condition to autism," explained Booth. "Is that what you're trying to tell me? That you have this?"

"That's what all the doctors told my parents. I was a difficult child and there were a few things that caused my parents to worry about what might be wrong with me. I was easily frustrated and often lashed out when I didn't understand something or was misunderstood. I didn't get along with other kids very well. I was very clumsy and always had bumps and bruises. That's also when I first got interested in bones. I would bring home dead animals and my mother would freak out when she found them. I had collections of them all over the house."

"For a few years after I started school, I was taken to one doctor or psychologist after another. They drove me crazy telling me how I was supposed to feel about one thing or another. In their opinion, my brain wasn't working the way everyone else's did, like I was broken and needed fixing.

They finally settled on labelling me as having a mild case of Asperger's and sent me to special classes until I started high school. To help my coordination, I started dance lessons which I hated. My parents let me choose martial arts instead when I was ten years old. I've been doing that ever since," Brennan continued with her story.

She stood up shakily from the kitchen bar to ease her cramped muscles. Booth steadied her by putting a hand on her shoulder and stood up himself. Booth was thankful that she had trusted him enough to tell him about this difficult part of her childhood. As if losing her parents wasn't bad enough, she had to deal with all of this as well. He pulled Brennan gently into his arms.

"Thank you for telling me, Bones," Booth said. Brennan stepped back enough to look into his eyes.

"Booth, last night...what happened between us...I don't want you to think I expect anything to change because of it. I don't process feelings well. That's why I reduce things to their physical equivalent. Sexual attraction is understandable but being "in love" doesn't make sense. I can't tell the difference. I'm not good at personal relationships when they become full of expectations. I don't pick up on things everyone else seems to be able to do automatically."

"I know I care about you but I won't let anything jeopardize our work and our being partners. I've worked too hard to build my life. Besides you said you didn't want to be involved with someone you worked with. Isn't that why you broke things off with Cam?" said Brennan, her courage began to falter and her knees felt weak again, thankful for Booth's gentle grip of her arms.

Booth knew what saying all of this had cost her emotionally. Not able to resist any further, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her gently. Now came his turn. He took her hand and led her to the sofa so they could talk more comfortably. He knew she would need to sit down again due to her injuries. He retrieved their coffees and returned to sit beside Brennan. As she made her way to the sofa, she grabbed her handbag from where she dropped it last night and dug out Anna's picture.

"Bones, I have no regrets either. You're right, our jobs are important and we work well together. I don't want that to change. Nothing else has to change either, if that's what you want. What's important now is that you know how I feel about you. I don't know where this will lead any more than you do. Understanding your childhood helps figure out some of your mysteries," Booth said with a smile, "but it doesn't change how I feel."

"When that bastard Epps used Parker for his twisted game, I lost my perspective and Cam almost died. I felt out of control and thought I needed to stay detached to keep the people I cared about safe. I respect Cam and we are still good friends, but I was never in love with her. When you didn't go away with Sully, I was happy we could still be partners. I didn't want to lose that but your decision had to be up to you. All I could do was support whatever you wanted. When you didn't go, I was happy I wouldn't have to share you with him, though. I guess I'm not as afraid now as I was about taking a chance."

"Looks like a year in therapy has done you good even though you now know my real reasons for hating psychology," Brennan said with a smile, hoping to lighten the mood. Booth laughed, returning a smile of his own.

"Yeah, maybe. I'm glad I don't have to hide this anymore. It's been driving me crazy ever since Caroline conned you into kissing me under that mistletoe," said Booth.

"Booth, I'm not ready to change our friendship into something else. Love is supposed to be forever and I don't think I can do that," pleaded Brennan.

"It's okay, really," reassured Booth, disappointed but knowing full well the challenge he had set himself up for. He certainly wasn't going to give up but knew he had to take this as slow as he could. It might take a very long time before Bones could trust her own feelings for him, but he could wait. The best things in life were worth waiting for. He leaned over, gave Brennan one of his sexiest most adoring smiles and kissed her chastely on the forehead.

"Now," Booth asked," Was there something else you wanted to tell me? Do you have something to show me?" pointing to the folded piece of paper Brennan held in one hand and knowing they had other issues to deal with.

"I imagine Angela told you all about what happened at the bookstore before the explosion," Brennan's smile sobered and handed Anna's picture to him. "I just don't know what to think or what to do about this."

Without looking at the picture just yet, he said, "Yes, Angela told me. I know you both went in because Angela decided on a whim to have your fortunes told. It is amazing that this little girl knew so many details about you and your family. You and Angela were probably random victims of the bomb but until we know that you weren't targets, I'm telling Cam to increase security at the Jeffersonian. You'll also have someone following you wherever you go. If I can take care of other issues, that'll be me. If not, I'll get someone else assigned to follow you." He gave Brennan a look that she instantly recognised and understood. There was no point in objecting to the extra security. They didn't know enough about this situation to know what to expect.

He unfolded the drawing to reveal the scene of a family of five having a picnic in a garden. It wasn't perfect, but the detail was impressive, let alone taking into account the artist's age. The woman, meant to be the mother of the family, was shown with shoulder length brown hair and wearing a blouse and skirt with a wide belt and large buckle that looked like it had a fish on it. The main shocker of this picture was that the woman held a baby. The rest of the picture was as expected with a man, an older boy and a young girl standing together.

"Wow. It's obviously supposed to be your family. Did your parents have a third child?" said Booth.

"I have no idea. Not that I ever knew. I need to call the prison to arrange a visit with my father, and Russ too if they will let us. Do you think they would allow me to see both of them together?" she asked.

Booth shrugged and said, "All you can do is ask. You do have more privileges than the ordinary visitor."

"Booth, Ummm…last night, during my dream…my mother was there. She said I would understand once I found someone called Beth. She told me Beth was my sister," said Brennan, incredulously. "Booth, how is this possible. Nothing has ever happened like this to make me believe in this kind of thing before. I never felt my mother's presence after the time, we now know, she was dead."

"I don't know, Bones. You know I'm not comfortable with this stuff, either. I know the FBI and other agencies have used psychics before and very successfully, in some cases, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help this time," Booth said regretfully. "Go ahead and call the prison. Maybe your dad can make some sense out of all this. Who knows how Anna Maisson fits into this. I need to check in to the office, too. Maybe there is something new."

While Brennan made her own set of phone calls to the prison and the lab, Booth checked on Anna's condition as well as the trace on her family and the rest of the investigation.

"Good news about Anna, Bones. She's awake and doing well. She has been asking about you and Angela. She already knows about her mother somehow. She's sad, of course but otherwise okay. Probably overheard a nurse or someone talk about it. Her grandmother in New Orleans has been contacted and will be arriving as soon as it can be arranged," said Booth, starting off with the news Bones would be happiest to hear first when they had both finished their calls.

"I'm so glad she's awake and she has family coming to be with her. I'll take Angela with me when I go to visit her today," said Brennan.

"Are you okay to drive yourself or would you like to tag along with me today?" asked Booth, hoping to have an easier job of keeping tabs on his independent partner.

"I'll be fine, really," Brennan said with a reassuring smile but noted his disappointment. "I need to see Dad and Russ alone. They approved a visit for this afternoon. Depending on how things go at the lab, I'll plan to visit Anna before I go out to the prison."

"Well, I'll have to drive you out to the Institute. I had someone move your car over there after the scene had been cleared for the public yesterday," informed Booth.

After a few minutes to collect their things, they left the apartment to begin their respective tasks. When Booth dropped Brennan at the lab, he wanted so much to kiss her but knew he had to be patient and follow the expected on-the-job proprieties. They exchanged warm smiles instead and agreed to meet later that day at the lab.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Brennan walked into the lab at 9:30 am and tried to sneak into her office unseen. It didn't work and within 0two minutes had everyone poking their heads into her office to give her grief for being there in the first place and not at home resting. She reassured each one, in turn as each one arrived and went on their way, that she was fine.

Angela had come in to work as well to basically the same reception but, other than being a bit tired, was feeling well enough to work. Since Brennan needed to talk to Angela, she was the only one not immediately shooed out of her office.

Angela was thrilled to learn how well Anna was doing as well as the news about her grandmother. She also noticed there was something different about Brennan somehow, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Thankfully, Brennan didn't have any new cases to deal with so was able to put her full attention on her own situation. Sitting at her own desk, Brennan showed Anna's picture to Angela.

"Oh, my God. What is this supposed to mean?" said Angela.

"I don't know. Maybe Dad knows. I'm going to see if I can request the area where my mother's bones were found searched again. Angela, I had an odd dream last night. My mother was there telling me I had to find my sister named Beth. I'm afraid the way she said it implied that she was dead. You know, Dad still hasn't said anything about what happened when Mom died. I can't believe I'm taking this seriously," said Brennan, finding it hard to believe her own experiences in the light of a new day.

"When did you want to visit Anna? I can get away whenever you like, unless something else comes up," said Angela.

"I'll come and get you around noon. My appointment to see Dad and Russ is at 2:00pm. I need to examine the bones from the explosion. Now that they have been identified, we can move on to searching for other answers," said Brennan. Mulling over these new developments, Angela returned to her office.

Brennan joined Hodgins and Zack in examining the two explosion victims. By the time she needed to pick up Angela to head for the hospital, she had made little headway. She knew little things about the victims like childhood injuries and other seemingly insignificant details, but nothing that answered her real questions, all whys. Why has a little girl lost her mother? Why was an allegedly opportunistic employee of an ordinary delivery service dead? She needed Booth for those answers. He was good at that. She could answer many questions but rarely the whys.

Brennan remembered she hadn't asked Booth about the case that had come up yesterday that caused them to leave the bookstore in a rush. She would have to remember to ask him about it later.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anna was sitting up in her bed watching cartoons, when Angela and Brennan walked in. They had removed the monitoring wires so she was free to move as she wanted. Angela carried a bag of drawing supplies for her.

"Angela! Dr. Brennan! Did you hear, my Nana's coming!" said Anna, excitedly.

"Yes, we did. We're so happy they found her. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?" asked Angela.

"I'm okay. My arm hurts and my bumps, too. I miss my Momma but she promised to come back and visit me sometimes. She told me I would have to go live with Nana, now." said Anna. Angela and Brennan exchanged glances on hearing this.

"Sweetie, I'm so sorry your Momma's gone," Angela said, with tears rising to her eyes.

"Anna, do you know why anyone would want to hurt your mother?" asked Brennan.

"No, I don't know. Sometimes Momma would have people come into the store who didn't understand things and called her bad names. Sometimes, the phone would ring and after a moment she would hang up looking angry. I don't know why someone would blowed things up," said Anna.

"I brought you some drawing things for when you get tired of watching cartoons," Angela said, handingthe bag over toAnna who immediately dumped its contents on her bed to look though.

"Thank you, Angela. I hope I didn't scare you, yesterday," Anna said.

"What do you mean, sweetie?" Angela asked

"When Momma found me. I saw you looking at us. I followed you to work and watched while you drew Momma's picture. I saw a big box of awful bugs and then I saw you make Momma's picture show up on the light box. Momma came and took me back to the hospital," explained Anna, revealing yesterday's adventures at the forensics lab.

"Angela, what is she talking about?" asked Brennan.

"Oh my god! It was real. I can't believe it. How could you do that?" Angela said, so totally stunned that she had to find a chair to sit down.

"I don't know but it was a lot of fun," giggled Anna. "I wanted to play some more when I woke up this morning but no matter how much I tried, I couldn't make my body sleep without me. Dr. Brennan, are yougoing to look for Beth like your momma wants?"

This child was one marvel after another. Talking to Brennan's mother was one thing but Brennan's whole world view was rapidly turning upside down and opening up a world of mysteries to be considered. Brennan and Angela exchanged another puzzled look.

"Yes, Anna. I'm going to try. I don't really know where to look but we'll start where my mother's bones were found," explained Brennan, feeling that there was no point in trying to shield this particular child from serious issues like death.

"That's probably a good place," Anna said seriously, with a maturity way beyond her years that seemed hard to fathom in one so small.

Remembering the events at the bookstore, Brennan suddenly realized that Anna might be able to communicate with her mother. Feeling incredibly uncomfortable about Anna's evident abilities but taking a chance at these new possibilities, she asked, "Anna, yesterday you said that my mother was there with us. Is she here with us today?"

"No, Dr. Brennan. I guess it's the hospital. Momma showed me how to think really hard to make the voices go away when there are too many. It's not too bad yet but maybe cause I got hurted," Anna replied, reverting back to sounding reassuringly like the little girl she was.

"Then, how do you know about Beth? You didn't mention her yesterday," asked Brennan.

" Momma did. She was with me until I woke up today. She said it was okay to help you if you asked me. Maybe when I'm feeling better the spirit people will come back and talk to me again," answered Anna.

At that moment, an older woman, recognisable as an older version of Karina Maisson, came into the room. She looked tired and sad but at the first sight of Anna, she smiled as she rushed over to the little girl's bed.

"Nana! You're here," an overjoyed Anna cried out as her grandmother carefully picked her up for a big hug, taking into account the girl's injuries.

"Baby, I was so worried about you," Anna's grandmother said emotionally, with tears in her eyes.

"Nana, this is Angela and Dr. Brennan. They got blowed up too," Anna politely introduced them.

"Hello, I'm Marianne, Marianne Maisson. Thank you for being here for my granddaughter," she said, as they all greeted each other and exchanged condolences for the loss of her daughter. "You must be the Dr. Brennan I was told to find. The people who contacted me said you were part of the investigation into my daughter's death. You were both caught in the explosion, too?"

"Yes, that's true. Fortunately, we only had relatively light injuries. It seems, so far, to have been a coincidence. We just happened to be in the store at the time. It's not technically an FBI case but our involvement has changed things. We both work for the Jeffersonian Institution's Medico-Legal Lab with the FBI and other authorities when necessary. I'm a forensic anthropologist and Angela is our imaging artist, among other specialties," explained Brennan. "My partner with the FBI, Agent Seeley Booth will probably be contacting you regarding any questions they may have."

"Of course, I'll help in any way I can," replied Marianne.

"Well, we should leave you to visit with your granddaughter. Please contact me if you or Anna need anything," said Brennan and handed her a business card.

"Thank you so much. I'll call and leave my contact information later when I get settled into a hotel. I came straight from the airport," Marianne said.

Angela and Brennan both gave Anna hugs, said their goodbyes and promised to check up on her the next day. Brennan dropped Angela off at the Jeffersonian, checked her messages and proceeded to the prison for her appointment with her father and brother.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Booth sat at his desk going through crime scene photos and forensic reports on the bookstore explosion. The FBI lab had completed its examination of the bomb fragments but had not come up with anything useful. The delivery man had no apparent motive to cause the destruction that ended his life. His residence had been searched but no bomb making materials were found or anything else incriminating. He seemed to be what he appeared, nothing more than a man willing to stretch a few rules to make some extra pocket money.

At that moment, Booth's cell phone rang. He grabbed it off of his desk and found himself smiling when he noticed the call was from Bones.

"Hey, Bones. How are you doing?" he answered.

"I'm fine,Booth," answered Brennan. "I'm on my way to see Dad and Russ. Thought you might want to know that we met Marianne Maisson, Anna's grandmother, at the hospital.

"Thanks," Booth said, "I just got the report from our undercover person at the hospital. She'll be approached to help her find a secure place to stay. We're finished with her daughter's apartment but it probably isn't the best place for her until we know more about what we're dealing with."

"I had a chance to ask Anna if she knew anything. All she said was that her mother sometimes had abusive people and odd phone calls at the store. Probably fundamentalist religious types. I imagine that kind of thing would be an occupational hazard for anyone, let alone a psychic, running that kind of business." Brennan said.

"Yeah, we're already going over her phone records. It's a good thing she hasn't been in the city that long. It should be a quick search. Maybe her mother can fill in something," said Booth.

"Hopefully. I'm just pulling into the prison now. Gotta go," said Brennan, as she ended the call on her speaker phone.

"I'll catch up with you as soon...," replied Booth realising she had already hung up and missed his last sentence.

Brennan drove through the security gate and presented her ID for inspection. Once cleared, she was directed to visitor parking and made her way through the various security stations. She was glad that she would be allowed the use of one of the double entry glass partitioned interrogation rooms instead of the little cubicles where you could only talk by telephone through the glass. Brennan was directed into their assigned room. It was brightly lit but the nearby armed guards kept the atmosphere anything but relaxed.

While she waited, she thought about her recent experiences and wondered how she was going to deal with whatever might come out today. Although security had taken her handbag, she was allowed to keep Anna's picture. She wanted to stay objective, as if this were just another case she was working on.Instead, she found just thinking about her mother made her eyes tear upand a lump form in her throat. She was dismayed at how her emotions seemed so close to the surface.

She was distracted from her thoughts suddenly by the appearance through the glass of Russ and her dad as they made their way down the hallway past the other interconnected rooms. She quickly brushed the forming tears from her eyes.

"Tempe, are you alright?" said Russ as he entered the room first. Brennan stood up to give him a hug as Max came in.

"Yes,I'm fine. Just don't hug me too tight," she answered, trying to pass her injuries off as lightly as possible as she movedto give her father a hug as well. "Some bruised ribs, nothing to worry about."

Both Max and Russ did a silent inspection of the cuts and bruises visible on her face and arms as they all seated themselves around the table.

"We were told yesterday that you had been hurt when a bomb blew up a bookstore killing two people. That's all they told us except that you had spent time at the hospital before being released. It was hard just sitting here and not being able to be with you," said Max.

"We're still not sure what that was all about. Dad, some new information on Mom and her death came to my attention yesterday but it's from an unverifiable source. I asked to see both of you together because Russ has a right to know about this, too," Brennan started in on her main purpose for being there.

"You've never told us what happened to Mom exactly," said Russ, his curiosity now awakened and wondered what his sister had found out.

"What's this all about, baby?" Max said, trying to get a feel for the situation.

"Dad, will you please tell us what happened? All we know from her remains and the investigation so far is that she was injured during a confrontation with Vince McVicars a short time after you left us and that injury never healed. It caused a subdural hematoma that grew gradually and caused damage to her brain. She died no more than two years after being attacked with that revolting bolt gun McVicars used to slaughter pigs and his human victims," said Brennan, with disgust in her voice as she remembered the search for her mother's killer, meeting McVicars and finding the bolt gun in question.

Even though he had heard these details before, Russ found himself shocked anew at hearing what had caused his mother's death.

"So what's this new information you have," said Max, still trying to delay fulfilling his children's request.

"Dad, just tell us. We can both guess it must have been difficult. You had to run from McVicars when he attacked Mom. She died and you buried her in that cemetery in Pennsylvania," urged Russ, as he glanced from his sister and father.

Max's face filled with emotion as he tried to arrange his thoughts. The inevitable had come to pass. He would have to tell them... everything.

"I didn't want to keep it from you but your mother was gone and it seemed better to just forget. I didn't know how to tell you both. You already had lots of good reasons not to trust me, I was afraid I would lose you all over again," Max said.

Brennan pulled Anna's picture from her pocket and opened it for both Max and Russ to see. Russ' face clouded as the possible scenarios suggested by the picture began to form in his mind.

"My God," whispered Max as he looked at the drawing. "Who drew this? It looks like a child's drawing."

"Yes, actually you're right but I'll explain the picture after you tell us what happened to Mom," Brennan said, making it clear she wasn't going to settle for anything but the whole truth.

"I don't know how anyone could have known. This picture makes no sense," said Max puzzled over this development.

He took a deep breath and finally started his story. "Okay. As you can expect, we moved around a lot trying to stay ahead of anybody still looking for us. I really hoped I had killed McVicars after he hurt your mother with that bolt gun you mentioned but I couldn't be sure," he said as a flash of anger crossed his face as the memories surfaced in his mind.

"About a year later, we moved to a friend's family farm next to this old country cemetery near Salisbury. It was beautiful countryside and your mother loved walking in the cemetery's park. We didn't know she had been seriously hurt. The cut on her head healed quickly leaving only a small scar hidden by her hair. She had started getting headaches but it just seemed to be the stress we were both under. She had always had the occasional migraine. You may both remember that."

"I had gotten a job nearby as an electrician. I know in Chicago, you knew me as a science teacher. Before we got pulled into our life of crime, I had spent years working in construction so it was easy work to get," Max paused as he reached out to hold both Russ' and Brennan's hands in his."

"What this picture shows is true. About March that year, your mother became pregnant. She missed you both so much and was so afraid of doing something to expose you to danger. We never risked trying to keep tabs on you. It wasn't until after your mother died that I tracked you both down. You weren't in perfect situations but you were okay in your own lives. I knew that to keep you safe, I still had to keep my distance under the circumstances."

"Anyway, your mother became very protective of the baby and seemed to feel somehow that God had forgiven her for leaving you two behind to give us another child. She started to behave in odd ways...paranoid and over-emotional. Whether this was just her pregnancy and hormones or some effect of her injury, I don't know. She refused to see a doctor for her headaches or the baby. She kept saying having you two was enough experience. Remember we were living in the country. It was secluded and seemed safer."

"For the last five months of her life, she never went into town or met anyone in the community. I did our shopping and while I was at work, she spent her time either gardening or walking in the countryside. In late September, she was about seven months and the only outing I could talk her into was going to a movie theatre with me in a small town a couple of hours away. Somehow, I convinced her that there was no chance anyone would recognise us. It was one of her last 'good' days when the headaches didn't bother her too much."

"A few days later, I came home from work and...," Max paused as he gave his son and daughter's hands a squeeze and a tear started to fall down his cheek, "I came home and couldn't find her anywhere. At first I thought she was just out walking but there was a storm brewing. There had been tornado warnings but then I found blood on the bed and in the bathroom."

At this point, Russ and Brennan linked there other hands together to complete a circle of support with their father.

Max continued, "I didn't know if she had been attacked or if it was something to do with the baby. I followed the trail of blood into the woods. It was getting dark and had started to rain. I came out near the cemetery and saw her in the distance. She was kneeling on the ground covering a hole with dirt. When I got close enough for her to see me, she tried to tell me what happened but she was so distraught, it didn't make a lot of sense. Best I could gather was that she had gone into labour that morning and had no way to contact me. We didn't have a phone. We had talked about names for the baby - Ryan for a boy and Elizabeth for a girl. The only way I knew the baby was a girl was she kept repeating the baby's name, "Beth". She said Beth lived only a couple of hours before something went wrong and died."

Startled to hear her sister's name confirmed, Brennan covered her surprise by giving her father's hand an encouraging squeeze.

"Your mother buried your sister. She knew we wouldn't be able to report it. She collapsed from loss of blood and I carried her home in the rain. She died in my arms before I could even think of driving her to the nearest hospital in Meyersville. The next day, I buried her near where I thought she had buried the baby, cleaned the mess in the house and left. Your mother and sister died on September 27, 1993."

At this point, everyone's faces were covered with tears as Max finished telling of their family's tragedy but these were now cleansing tears. Russ and Brennan could now hope for some closure to their mother's absence in their lives once they were able to process these new details of her death and to grieve for the sister they would never have a chance to know.

"You blame yourself, don't you?" asked Russ, although it was more of a statement as the answer was obvious.

"Of course I do. If I had been there when she needed me, they both might have lived," Max said, releasing their hands to wipe away his tears.

"Dad, there was no way for you to have known about Mom's injury. You said she refused any medical treatment and keeping her calm may have prolonged her life a short time. If you had been able to get medical help at the right time - which is difficult to know when that would have been - there's no guarantee that she, or the baby, would have survived the surgery from this kind of damage. It may have even caused her premature labour. I can blame you for quite a few things but not this. McVicars is to blame, not you," said Brennan, through her tears. "I'm afraid she would have died from this within a short time, no matter what happened."

"I can't blame you either, Dad. I trust Tempe's knowledge on this," added Russ. "You did all you could to keep her safe."

Max was speechless. He had held this in for so long and had worked himself into a state thinking, with everything that had happened, blaming him for their mother's death would be a naturalconclusion in their minds. He felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders.

'You know, I almost wish your mother hadn't been found. Not for the reason you think. It's just that she loved that place so much. It was a real sanctuary for her." As he said this, he remembered one of his few happy memories from this time. He would come home late in the evening after a long day at workjust before sunset and see Ruth cross the clipped lawn surrounding the cemetery, backlit with the colours of the setting sun. "It's okay where you have her now, but it would be nice if she could be together with your sister, somehow."

"I've already requested a sweep of the area where Mom's remains were found with a ground penetrating radar device. I will be informed of anything found and have left express instructions that I will perform the examination on site," explained Brennan.

"The only thing she didn't like about that place was a nearby wolf pack that would sometimes keep her up with their howling. Near the end, they got worked into her paranoia and she was almost too afraid to go on her usual walks. She even had nightmares of them chasing her through the woods during those last few months," Max said.

Brennan's face suddenly turned white at hearing this. Her recent brush with the paranormal had her thinking all sorts of weird and unacceptable things. She tried to reassert her logical nature but it was too late to prevent both Russ and Max from noticing her reaction.

"Tempe, are you alright?" asked Russ at the same time as Max said,"Baby, what's wrong."

Brennan sighed and tried with difficulty to collect herself. "About a year and a half after you and Mom left, I started to get these dreams. I assumed it was just stress from the living situation I was in at the time. It was a difficult placement and I moved again right away. For years afterwards though, that dream would show up whenever I was stressed about something. It was just like what you said about Mom's dreams. Wolves would chase me through the woods and I would wake myself up screaming. Did Mom have a fear of wolves that I might have picked up as a child?"

"No, not that I recall, but you never know - maybe," replied Max, puzzled by his daughter's admission.

"I'm not sure how to explain this, but the reason I needed to talk to you both today is because of something odd that happened yesterday. This is so far away from anything I have ever accepted as true but I met a little girl yesterday, moments before that explosion. That picture was drawn by her while I watched. She believed that Mom was there in the room with us. Only she could see her and communicate with her. She knew your names and I mean your real names. She even knew about the "bad things" she called them, that you both have done. Apparently, Mom worries about you both."

"Last night, I had that wolf dream again for the first time in almost ten years and this time, Mom was there. She told me to find Beth. In my dream, I asked her who Beth was and she told me she was my sister. That dream gave me information only you would know." Brennan started to lose her composure, "I can't believe I'm dreaming of ghosts. They don't exist. They can't..."

Max stood up and went around the table to gather his daughter into his arms as she burst into sobs. Max tried to comfort her as best he could but he was also reeling with the implications of what she had just said. Could his daughter and his wife have been psychically linked somehow? Just like his daughter, he prided himself on being practical and this kind of thing was beyond his understanding.

Brennan fought herself to calm down and a couple of minutes later, said "I'm okay...I'm okay." Brennan picked up Anna's picture as she sat down and Max returned to his seat after giving Russ an affectionate pat on the shoulder.

"The little girl who drew this is only four years old. Her name is Anna Maisson and the explosion killed her mother and the person who delivered the bomb. We were walking past this little New Age bookstore and Angela suddenly decided to have our fortunes told. We had just left the store and were lucky to be missed by the full force of the explosion."

"Angela's okay just some cuts and bruises. This morning when Angela and I visited Anna, one of the first things she asked me was if I was going to find Beth like my mother wanted. How could she know?"

"Anna said Mom wanted us to know that she loved us all very much. I don't know what to believe anymore," Brennan said, completely spent emotionally.

Russ had been quietly listening to all of this and finally said,"Tempe, I can understand why you're confused right now. This is all remarkable but is it so hard to accept that Mom would want to reach us, somehow?" He had always been more like his mother when it came to accepting the mysteries of the world. Working as a travelling carny ride operator, he'd met a couple of seemingly talented psychics among the many flim flam artists over the past few years.

"Yes," Brennan said forcefully," I don't accept anything survives death. it's just flesh that rots away leaving the bones. Nothing more."

Shhhh..." said Max, reassuringly. "It's alright, Temperance. We all have to deal with this in our own way. I'm glad you both know about your mother and sister now. We can start to put this all behind us."

At this point, a guard signalled and caught Max's attention. "I'm sorry but I think our time is up for using this room," he said.

"Yes. I need to get back to work. We still have a bomber to catch," replied Brennan as she got up to give Russ and her father a hug goodbye.

Booth had been watching the Brennan family for several minutes from a short distance away. He hoped she was finally getting the answers she needed. Brennan came out of the small room and saw Booth waiting for her. She felt emotionally drained and physically exhausted.

"Hey, are you going to be okay," Booth asked quietly as she drew nearer to him. He had witnessed her emotional states while talking to her family. Her eyes were red and puffy and her face was well stained with tears. Brennan walked into his arms that automatically moved to encircle her in a protective embrace.

"Yes. You know, for the first time in a long time, I think I will be," she said as she met his eyes with the beginnings of a smile.

Back in their meeting room, Max and Russwaited for their respective escort guards and saw the obviously affectionate greeting between their Temperance and Booth.

"I think our Tempe has finally found her man," said Russ as he exchanged a grin with his Dad.

"Maybe," Max responded, "He's got a lot of walls to climb. I couldn't wish for anyone better for her. He just might be strong enough to get through to her. I wish him the best of luck."

As Max and Russ were ushered back to their daily activities, Booth and Brennan made their way through the security checkpoints to retrieve their personal belongings. As they were going out the last set of doors, Booth's cell phone rang with an incoming text message that read,"Unidentified pkg found at psychic fair, Lincoln Community Centre. Evac in progress. Presence required ASAP."

Booth handed his phone to Brennan to read the message and grabbed her other hand to drag her with him to his SUV. Within a minute, theysped off with Booth's cherry light flashing, slowed only slightly to exit the final security checkpoint and to flash Booth's ID to the startled guard.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Booth, you're kidnapping me again! I need to get back to the lab. I am quite capable of driving myself. At least when we get to the community centre, let me take a cab or something," said Brennan, testily. She knew she was becoming over tired and easily ticked off.

"Hey, I thought you would want to be in on this. My mistake...Come on Bones, think, bomb...psychic fair," said Booth, as he reminded her of the obvious with an encouraging smile to help win her over. "Besides, this new incident doesn't free you from your need for protection. I'm not letting you out of my sight until this thing is settled or we know for a fact you're not a target."

She was used to this from Booth and his "emergency" mode but it didn't get easier to deal with when it got between her and getting work done.

"If anything, finding a bomb at a psychic fair should be more evidence in favor of neither me or Angela being targets," she said.

"That proves my point right there. You're not thinking in your usual logical way. That is an unproven assumption. It's an unidentified box until known otherwise, Bones," Booth replied, rather happy with himself for being the logical and right one for a change.

All Brennan could do was mutter to herself. She so hated when he was right at her expense. Of course, no matter how tired she was, she would always choose to be where the action was. Being "chained" to Booth wasn't reallly all that bad, she thought. She almost smiled but caught herself in time to avoid Booth noticing. She didn't want to give him anything else to gloat over as he congratulated himself for winning this round. A wave of exhaustion spilled over her as she rested her weary head back against the car seat's head rest.

Booth looked over at his partner resting her eyes but still obviously tense. He reached over to cover her hand with his. Brennan opened her eyes and looked over at him.

"I promise, as soon as I find out what is going on, I'll make sure you get to the lab one way or another. You should really be wanting to go home. You look awful and I mean that in a totally supportive "telling you the truth only 'cause I care" kind of way," Booth said, hoping to get a smirk at the very least out of her.

Brennan rewarded him with half a chuckle and knew he was right, again. Damn, this was really getting out of hand. She gave his hand a squeeze, gently removed hers from his grasp and closed her eyes again as she tried to get comfortable.

After a 30 minute drive through rush hour traffic, they finally arrived at the centre where organised chaos gave way to pockets of panic among the crowds being kept behind the hastily assembled police barricades.

Booth wished he could have let her stay in the SUV to rest but he was serious about keeping her in his sights. Feeling slightly refreshed by her short rest, Brennan allowed him to usher her ahead of him as he surveyed the situation and flashed his badge to gain entry to the centre through the police perimeter.

As they entered the main hall, they were held back to watch the bomb squad go through their protocols to secure the troublesome package. They were informed that a sniffer dog had confirmed the presence of explosives.A bomb disposal robot was dispatched to carry the package through a cleared path to a disposal capsule parked in the middle of an empty parking lot. Booth and Brennan followed at the prescribed safe distance as the device was placed into the large "garbage can"- like cannister.

A few minutes later, they and the surrounding crowds were rewarded for their patience as they witnessed an explosion that could probably be heard a couple of miles away. Although this was all very exciting to see and hear, the crowd fell silent as they realized with a shock the real danger they had been in.

At that moment, a woman's voice could be heard coming towards Booth & Brennan as they stood a few feet away from one of the barricades.

"Please, I must speak to Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan. I know they're here. I saw them enter the centre," the woman said to the nearest policeman.

"All right, all right. I'll let them know you are here. What's your name, ma'am?" the officer asked.

He was getting weary of being approached by every so-called psychic here. He mentally groaned "_This would have to happen at a psychic fair_". He'd heard everything in the past hour, from spirit guides pointing the accusing finger at some famous "still-at-large" criminal to the ghost of Jack the Ripper. At least this one actually knew the names of real people involved in law enforcement or their related fields. Booth and Brennan's partnership was actually pretty famous in both of their respective professional circles. This officer had recognised them in the nearby crowd of cops, fire fighters, bomb squad personnel and other officials managing the incident.

"Marianne Maisson," she answered the officer politely but with an authoritative edge to her voice.

Hearing this, Brennan turned to see Anna's grandmother trying to get her attention. Booth flashed his badge at the office and said, "Let her through, I'll take responsibility for her."

"Dr. Brennan, thank God I found you," Marianne said, relieved at completing this part of her task.

"Booth, this is Anna's grandmother, Marianne Maisson. This is Special Agent Seeley Booth, Marianne," said Brennan as she made the introductions.

"Why did you need to find us so urgently and how did you happen to know we were here," asked Booth as he collected his first impressions of this woman.

"The bomb scare was a breaking news bulletin on Anna's hospital TV half an hour ago. I'm also acquainted with several of the participants here. This is a large show and there are people here from all over the country. I was actually on my way here even before the news came on. Anna gave me a picture for you and a message. She says look out for "fingers in his pocket". She couldn't really explain what that meant. A cab got me here ten minutes ago and as I said I saw you walk in," explained Anna's grandmother.

She handed the picture over to Booth who unfolded it to reveal a fairly accurate representation of 2 bomb disposal canisters with blast lines coming out of both and a drawing of a man with short hair and a moustache. He was wearing a uniform like suit with a name badge on his jacket that read "Walters".

"Booth, remember Anna was right about my mother and sister," Brennan added and tried to justify her support by using the "results prove worth" method of logic.

At that moment four members of the bomb squad walked past them returning to the community centre after taking care of the reported package. Booth instantly made the connection to the last name of the dead deliveryman and got a glimpse of a moustache on one of them through his protective mask. Taking an intuitive leap, Booth called out, "Hey, Walters, did you find the other bomb?"

The man Booth had noticed turned his head to respond to the calling of his name and reached into a pocket with his right hand. Booth removed his gun and pointed it at the man stopped in front of him. "FBI, Walters. Hold it right there. If I'm wrong I'll apologize. Please remove your hand from your pocket slowly and put your hands up." He motioned to a nearby officer to search the man's pockets. As the man removed his hand, he revealed that he was holding what looked like a cell phone.

"I wouldn't come any closer, if I were you," yelled Walters. "You think that bomb was exciting. The other one is even better. You'll never find it in time." His threat got the attention ofeveryone within hearing range and was quickly surrounded by law enforcement with their weapons drawn.

"That won't do you any good, Walters. You may be good at building bombs but how you were able to pass as a bomb technician, I'll never know." Booth taunted the deranged man at the end of his gunsight.

Walters pressed a button on his device but nothing happened. Panicking, he pushed it again but still got no response. At this point, the cops surrounded him, secured the device and took him away in handcuffs.

"Agent Booth, how did you know the trigger wouldn't work," asked Marianne, aghast at the chance he had just taken.

'It's standard operating procedures during a bomb threat, Ms Maisson. Cell phone jamming equipment was one of the first responding teams when the bomb threat came in. It was turned on just before the other bomb was detonated. If you scan the crowd you'll see a lot of disappointed people trying to get their cell phones to work. Wireless triggers like this one made from a cell phone won't work. If that man had been a real member of the bomb squad, he would have known that," explained Booth.

Ten minutes later, a call was heard that informed the team that the other bomb had been found and as before, the appreciative crowd was treated to another contained explosion. Their contribution for the 'entertainment' was a lot of cheering and clapping as the police attempted to encourage everyone that the show was now over. The centre was still being searched to make sure there were no more surprises waiting for them. It would be off limits for at least the rest of the day.

"Hey, Booth," called an approaching man in FBI emergency gear trying to get his attention, "Wait up."

"Hi, Frank, what you got," replied Booth.

"Thought you might like to take custody of some evidence found on the suspect. Should interest your partner there," said Frank, Booth's FBI colleague, as he passed an evidence envelope over to him.

Booth opened the envelope, took a look and without further comment, handed it on to Brennan who had taken that moment to put on a pair of plastic gloves she always carried with her. Having a look for herself, she put a hand into the envelope and took out a shriveled severed finger for a closer look.

"Looks like Anna did it again. Just like she said,'fingers in his pocket'. No thumb but it appears that someone's missing four fingers," said Brennan as the implications of this sunk in. Well, at least now they had caught their bomber. With any luck, they could now fill in the rest of the story.

Booth was released from the scene to return Marianne to the hospital and then headed off to the Jeffersonian to fulfill his promise to return Brennan to the lab. The gruesome gift of bones was all that was needed to wake her up to full attention. For as long as that lasted. Booth touched his lucky chip in his pocket and bet himself that, when he returned in a hour, he would find his Bones curled up on her office sofa having a long awaited and necessary nap.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Yes!" Booth said to himself as he did a little mental happy dance as he entered Brennan's office. It was exactly one hour since he had dropped her off at the Jeffersonian's busy front entrance and there she was...sleeping. He had to concede to only a partial win on his bet with himself. Bones was asleep but not snuggled adorably under a blanket on her sofa like the image he had created in his mind. She had fallen asleep instead at her desk, her head resting on her crossed arms. Little did she know how much that was going to hurt when she woke up, he thought sympathetically.

He hoped to approach her desk without startling her but as he came close, she opened her eyes and raised her head with a short grimace of pain to look up at him.

"Hi," Brennan said sleepily, "...just resting my eyes." Her little nap was quickly turning out to have been a mistake. Her unhappy ribs, let alone her neck, were not thanking her for her chosen sleeping position. She should have laid down on the sofa.

"I can see that," he said, with an amused smile and twinkle in his eye as he sat down in one of the office chairs by her desk. "Did you find out anything about those fingers?"

"I gave them to Cam," she replied as she rubbed her sore neck, "since they still had flesh on them. She was able to recover the prints by rehydrating the skin and she's running them now. All characteristics indicate they came from the same hand, probably the left, and removed 5 to 9 days ago."

"I also heard from Salisbury on any unauthorized burials near my mother's original grave," she continued. She had told Booth during their trip to the community centre earlier about the details learned from her talk with her father of her mother's and sister's deaths. "The GPR survey came up with 22 possible hits within the 200 square yards search area. I asked them to go ahead and identify what they could and get back to me if any human infant remains are found. They expect most of them to be animals. Apparently, that area was used for pets in the past but never controlled by any kind of burial permit. What about our bomber?"

"The man we arrested is Eddie Walters from the same Walters family as Harold, our delivery man, and Robert from the bomb squad. They're all cousins," Booth explained. "We found Robert knocked out and tied up in his apartment. He'll be fine but he's getting checked out at the hospital now. Apparently our bomber looked enough like his cousin Bob under all the gear and knew enough of the emergency drill to impersonate him this afternoon. Bob told us that Eddie had gone through the bomb squad training program but failed the final psych test after a training incident that injured another trainee."

"Come on, Bones. I'm taking you home," he said as he moved around her desk and leaned down to take her hands when she turned her chair towards him.

She acquiesced reluctantly and placed her hands in his for him to help her to stand up. She would be glad when her body didn't hurt so much just moving normally but she appreciated his help. She stood up carefully and again found herself in close proximity to Booth. For someone who that very morning ...God, that seemed so long ago...had said she wasn't ready for more between them, she kept finding herself drawn to be near him. With her hands still in his, she leaned up and kissed him gently.

"So, what was that for?" asked Booth softly as he looked into her eyes with a quirky smile on his face.

"Ummm..no reason, just...thanks," she said, puzzled by her own behavior and mixed feelings.

"You're welcome. Let's get out of here," Booth said. He enjoyed the obvious effect he had on her and, at the same time, recognized her temporary vulnerability.

"Sorry to interrupt, you two," apologized a happily grinning Angela, "Cam sent me in with the fingerprint results from the fingers she was working on. Anyone want to guess who's on our current list for giving away his various body parts lately?"

"ArthurGraves," Brennan and Booth said in unison, both remembered how this crazy old man had pulled out all his teeth later used as shrapnel in a bomb. One tooth had become embedded in Brennan's shoulder.

"Yup, got it in one guess. DNA test results aren't in yet but Cam has confirmed that Graves had an 'unfortunate accident'," Angela shuddered in disgust at the gruesome details she was about to describe.

"He was found a week ago on the grounds of the seniors home where he lives. They believe he chopped his own fingers off his left hand with a garden ax. They sent him and his fingers to the hospital but the surgeon decided they wouldn't reattach properly due to his age and circulation problems. The fingers were supposed to have been disposed of in the hospital's incinerator."

"I'll have to find out why we weren't informed of Graves' accident. He is still part of an ongoing investigation. I guess if our bomber is involved with Graves somehow, it wouldn't have been all that difficult to steal the fingers," Booth said. "I'll check into that first thing tomorrow."

"I hope you're here to take Brennan home, Booth," Angela said, and turned to speak directly and seriously to her friend. "Sweetie, after what you've had to deal with the last couple of days, I'm surprised you're still conscious. You have got to look after yourself. Take the time to heal from everything and I don't just mean a few bruised ribs."

"Cam told me to tell you that she doesn't want to see you here tomorrow before noon," she added, in full agreement with their boss' instructions.

"I know and thanks, Angela. Yes, I'm going home and I promise not to be in early tomorrow," answered Brennan as she stepped away from Booth to get her jacket and bag.

After Booth helped her put on her jacket, Angela gave her a hug goodbye and watched the two of them leave the lab. She hoped that whatever was going on between them was helping and not adding to Brennan's current stress load. The kiss she had witnessed definitely indicated a certain familiarity. Although tentative in nature on Brennan's part, it was not a first kiss. Although helpful in the process, she discounted the mistletoe kiss as their real first. She told herself that tomorrow she would have to get all of the details as it was quite apparent she had missed a lot.

Booth and Brennan picked up Thai take-out and went back to her apartment for a quiet dinner. Afterwards, Booth gathered his things andassured himself that Bones would be all right. He gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek goodnight and went home.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Brennan, thankfully, slept soundly and undisturbed by dreams all night. Booth had arranged for her car to be returned to her own parking stall at the apartment so after a leisurely morning, she drove herself to work about 11:00am. Not quite noon as directed, but in comparison to her usual 7:00 am mornings, it was nice not to have to rush to work.

"Hey, sweetie. How are you feeling today?" asked Angela, when she walked into Brennan's office a moment after Brennan arrived. Angela had been on the look out for her so she could have her little chat before any distractions got in the way.

"I'm good, thanks. Slept great...no dreams. Anything new today?" asked Brennan with a relaxed smile for her concerned friend.

Angela was happy to hear this positive response and decided to take the opportunity for some overdue girl talk.

"Well, nothing under the category of recently or otherwise deceased but there is definitely something new between you and our favorite hunky FBI guy. So...what''s been going on?...and don't try to tell me "nothing". Both of you are acting decidedly couple-like," urged Angela and hoped Brennan felt comfortable enough to talk about it.

Brennan thought for a moment how much she wanted to say. Maybe Angela could help her with her changing feelings for Booth. They both moved to the office sofa to talk.

"I told him, Angela, about the Asperger's when I was a kid. I needed to explain...we needed to talk about something that happened between us the other night. Before you get your hopes up, no, I don't mean we slept together or had sex. Just something we needed to talk about. I know you've been telling me this for a while but we admitted that we do have strong feelings for each other. I just don't know if I can trust mine to be enough to build a relationship with someone I work with. I told him I didn't want to change the way things were, but Angela, it already is. This is exactly what I was afraid of," explained Brennan.

"When was this exactly that you two 'talked'?", asked Angela

"Umm... yesterday morning," she answered and waited for the expected exclamation of shock from her friend.

"Oh, my God! Bren, I could tell something had happened recently but no wonder you're so confused. You've got enough to deal with learning about your mom and everything. I was afraid of something like this. You're emotions must be a mess," Angela said with concern.

"Angela, really, I'm fine now. I know everything has been a shock and kind of weird but talking to Booth and then Dad and Russ yesterday helped a lot. We got the bomber so I don't have to worry about that. It's just that yesterday, every time I saw Booth, I ended up wanting to be near him and he let me," Brennan tried to explain her confusion.

"Give yourself a break and Booth a little credit. The last two days have been so far off normal that Booth reacted to what he thought you needed. You know how well he reads people, well he's an expert when it comes to you. He was willing to put himself where you might need him and, sweetie, he knew you would need him. To me, that just proves how much he cares about you. Are you worried about kissing him when he came to take you home yesterday?" Angela said, knowing Brennan often needed emotional situations spelled out for her even though they would be obvious to almost anyone else.

"I guess, it just surprised me. I started the day saying I wanted to keep a proper distance between us and seemed to keep throwing myself at him," explained Brennan, sheepishly.

"Well, he's a guy that loves you. Of course, he's going to hope that you might change your mind. Don't worry so much. He knows that as soon as you sort out your current set of mental baggage, heal some bones and catch up on your sleep, the Brennan we all know and love will be back in control. Right now you need the help of your friends. It's okay to be needy once in a while," Angela said with a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I know you're right. You know how dense I can be about this kind of thing. I'm just afraid of having something I've done be misunderstood. Things can happen so fast and I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up and do the appropriate thing in response. It's so weird knowing so much about the social conventions of other cultures but I'm so clueless when it comes to my own. Memorizing rules isn't the same as being able to intuitively know and respond to a situation correctly."

"It's like everyone but me has this dictionary of meanings that everything they experience gets filtered through. All I have are my senses. Do you know about those human behavior studies where they test a person's memory to show how unreliable witness testimonies can be?

Someone gets shown a picture of a man with a beard or a lineup of people to look at and they end up thinking 'Hey that guy looks a lot like Uncle Joe'. When asked to describe a particular man, they tend to describe their Uncle Joe. The memory of Uncle Joe replaces what they actually saw with their own eyes. My brain doesn't do that. Whether or not that similarity is true or not, doing that comparison wouldn't occur to me. It would be irrelevant to the task I would be instructed to do. What I remembered would be exactly what I saw."

Every experience or thing I've seen is like a series of photographs in my head. Romantic situations are like that...each one is different so I don't notice something that connects them somehow. My brain isn't constantly rewriting my mind's dictionary as often as everyone else's so that the next time something similar happens to me, I would automatically know how to respond. It would be like flipping through a photo album just to remember something. I'm usually starting from the beginning most of the time."

"The one thing I find though is that it seems that I'm the only one who sees the world the way it really is. Everyone else is living in a world their minds have created from all those similarities and comparisons their brains have worked so hard to keep track of."

"Does any of that make sense," Brennan concluded feeling odd about dissecting her feelings and perceptions like that even though Angela has always been able to understand her somehow.

Angela leaned over to give Brennan a hug. "Hey, you're not that clueless. You've come a long way since you were a kid. Bren, I don't think you really appreciate how special your partnership with Booth is. You have been able to get to know each other so well that responding to each other's emotions and actions are second nature, so much so that you don't notice it. Sure, Booth seems to be better at it but that's okay. You bring a lot of unique talent to the relationship, too. You've already built a trust in each other that is tested almost every day. You put your lives in each other's hands all the time. You're afraid of building a relationship with someone but, sweetie, you've already got one that a lot of other couples would envy. Your brain might make you different but that doesn't make you unlovable or incapable of expressing love. You're not a robot with a few senses to view the world. You've got a good heart and we all know that, especially Booth."

"Thanks, Angela.Hearing you explain it makes it easier to understand somehow," she said realising how much she had missed. Angela's description of her relationship with Booth just proved her point. She remembered an expression that always made her think. When she first heard it, she saw it literally in her mind until it's meaning sunk in. "Not seeing the forest for the trees" seemed to fit her state of mind perfectly.

"Anytime, sweetie...so what happened between you two anyway. Come on, the price for my expert advice is all those juicy details you conveniently left out," urged Angela with an impish smile.

Brennan sighed and gave her the complete version of her dream and waking up in Booth's arms.

"Wow, and he really thought you could be kissing him and still be asleep? I've never heard of that before but anything's possible, I guess," Angela said as she suddenly had a silly vision in her mind of two sleepwalking people meeting in a hallway for a romantic encounter before returning unawares to their respective beds. Getting up to raid the fridge in the middle of the night was one thing but her impromptu thought had her suppressing inappropriate giggles that she didn't want to explain. She gave Brennan another hugto hid her silenced chuckles and then stood up.

"I'd better get back to work before Cam notices I'm not being a productive little worker bee. You going to be okay?" she asked noticing her friend looked a little weepy.

"Yeah, sure. Go on. I'm fine," she shooed Angela away. At that moment, her desk phone rang.

"Brennan," she answered." Oh, yes.. send them right up."

"Angela, Marianne and Anna are here," she said calling her back to wait for their visitors. A few minutes later, they could hear the excited voice of a little girl acting like an experienced tour guide.

"This is Dr. Brennan's office, Nana, and Angela's is down there," Anna said as she pulled her grandmother through Brennan's doorway with her good arm.

"Anna, this is where people work, Don't forget your manners. You should knock or wait until someone says you can come in," explained Marianne to her exuberant granddaughter.

"Of course, you can both come in," said Brennan who welcomed them in with a smile as she was bombarded by a child in projectile hug mode, first for Brennan and then Angela.

"They released her this morning and this is the first place she wanted to come," explained Marianne,"You're looking much better yourself, dear. I was quite concerned about you yesterday,"

"Yes, I am, thanks. So, would you like a tour of the lab? No doubt Anna would like to continue showing you around and we can fill in anything she missed. Anna, I want to thank you for your help catching our bomber yesterday. We still don't know why he wanted to blow things up but at least he can't make any more to hurt people," Brennan said. She was still not comfortable with the whole idea of what Anna was able to do but knew it was important for her to view her talents positively.

Anna beamed happily after hearing Brennan's praise and for the next few minutes, they followed her as she lead everyone on her 'dream' tour. Anna and her grandmother were introduced to Zack and Hodgins who were both impressed by the little girl's knowledge. They hadn't been let in on the secret of her previous 'visit'. Zack showed her one of his flesh-eating bugs which she thought was interesting but still didn't want to remember seeing so many in the now empty glass case. Angela demonstrated the Angelator for them and included the Christmas tree she had created last year while they had been stuck in quarantine.

As they walked back to the lab's entrance, Marianne thanked them for showing them around and said,"Well Anna, I think we need to let these people get back to their work."

"Nana, don't forget my pictures for Dr. Brennan," Anna reminded her grandmother, who dug a handful of folded art paper from her bag and gave them to Anna.

"Here, these are for you. I don't know what they're all about. I just drew what I saw in my head. If I don't, the picture won't go away so I can draw something I want to draw," explained Anna as she handed them over to Brennan.

"Thank you, Anna." Brennan said as she gave the little girl a hug. She quickly looked at the first one and was surprised at the vivid colours that looked like a crime scene photo done in crayon. She folded it back up and tried to cover her surprise with a smile knowing that her curiosity would have to wait until later for a closer inspection.

"Well we must go look at some of your famous exhibits. Say good-bye Anna," said Marianne, as she waited to break her gregarious granddaughter away from her new friends. Everyone was busily signing Anna's arm cast.

At that moment, Booth came through the door and saw the gathered lab staff with Anna and her grandmother. After greeting him, they turned to leave. Anna suddenly turned back and said, "Oh, Mr. Booth, your grampa Nick wants you to give Parker his old catcher's glove." Anna then giggled before continuing," And he knows you think you lost it or forgot it in a neighbour's back yard. It's in Jared's toy trunk in the attic at your momma and daddy's house."

Everyone waved as an exasperated Marianne herded Anna through the door.

Booth just stood there with a look of shock on his face that Brennan enjoyed with a smile in spite of herself knowing how disconcerting it was to be on the receiving end of Anna's "messages". He soon recovered and said,"Come on, Bones. we have a case."

Brennan quickly grabbed her jacket and bag from her office and followed Booth out of the lab.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Booth and Brennan left the Jeffersonian's parking lot a few minutes alter saying goodbye to Anna and Marianne Maisson. Booth was unusually quiet. Anna's message from his grandfather was fresh in his mind and he found himself remembering happy childhood days playing ball with his brother and friends.

That catcher's glove had been one of his prized possessions as a twelve year old. Guessing at the reason for the thoughtful look on Booth's face, Brennan asked, "She was right, wasn't she?"

Booth looked over at her. "I can understand why Anna has made such an impression on you. Yeah, the basic details are correct. I did have a grandfather named Nick. He was my mother's stepfather who raised her. She was very young when he married my grandmother. His old catcher's glove was my birthday present when I was ten. He died when I was 15."

After a moment's pause, he said, "Giving it to Parker was one of the first things I thought about when he was born. Whenever I was home to visit my parents, I meant to dig it out but I don't have a clue where it is now. I'll know more when I check with my parents." He chuckled to himself as more happy memories paraded through his mind. "I did think I had lost it."

"Anthropologically, our culture uses the participation in sports like baseball as a means for bonding between male members in the family structure. Team sports are also important for preparing young men to become warriors and protectors of the community," said Brennan.

"Is that supposed to mean that giving Parker a catcher's glove is the first step on a slippery slope of turning my son into a soldier?" Booth said, hoping this wasn't going to turn into an argument about warfare and violence.

"Booth, I also said "protectors of the community". He could just as easily grow up to become a cop or even an FBI agent like his father. I would also think the best reason for giving Parker a baseball glove would be that he was interested in playing the game. sometimes playing a game is just playing a game for fun," Brennan said, calmly and objectively but with an underlying smile as they exchanged a glance.

"Oh...well, yes of course," Booth said, feeling slightly off balance but relieved to avoid cracking that weighty nut guaranteed to supply endless hours of heated debate. Remembering her smile, he began to get the impression that maybe he had been set up and had fallen for the bait. Brennan's sense of humour occasionally caught him off guard. He returned her smile acknowledging his defeat.

"So where are we going," asked Brennan as their route through the city seemed suspiciously familiar.

"This shouldn't take long. We're going to the FBI headquarters. It's a simple case of identifying and finding cause of death for remains found at a construction site. They are believed to be the remains of an old man with Alzheimer's that wandered away from home last summer," he explained.

"Oh, before I forget, what happened to the case you called me about before the explosion the other day?" she asked.

"Well, umm, this would be that case," Booth said, expecting Brennan to instantly get upset. "Now before you start yelling at me about compromising evidence, I'm only following orders. You're preaching to the choir here," Booth said hoping to avoid an argument.

"What is that supposed...oh, I get that. It means 'Why try converting members of the same belief system when they are already believers'. Zack could have dealt with a simple case like that the other day. I keep trying to convince you that he needs the field experience and it would be nice to have someone who can handle things when I am unavailable," said Brennan, pleased with herself to have understood his cultural reference. The issue with Zack was another well worn topic between them ever since Zack had received his doctorate.

"Wasn't my decision, Bones. The explosion involving you and Angela kind of trumped this one and Cullen made the call to hold off transferring the case until more was known about the bomber. Local ME and FBI forensics have already recovered the remains. They would probably have ended up as another one of your Limbo cases anyway if they couldn't make an immediate ID. With our bomber in custody, Cullen bounced the case back to us," he explained.

As expected, the case was a simple one. The remains were inspected at the FBI morgue and transport back to the lab was arranged. Brennan confirmed that the remains were those of an elderly Caucasian male. When they returned to the Jeffersonian and headed into Brennan's office, they were stopped by Zack's voice.

"Dr. Brennan, you have a message and a fax from the Pennsylvania ME's office about the Salisbury cemetery," he explained, approaching them from the platform, juggling several items that included his keycard and several sheets of paper.

"Of the 22 hits from the GPR survey, only 3 were human infants. The other 19 consisted of 8 dogs, 7 cats, 2 raccoons, a tree stump and an engraved rock used as a grave marker dated 1879. Are you going to the cemetery to recover the remains yourself?" Zack said, reading from the papers in his hands.

"Yes, Zack," Brennan replied as he handed her the faxed report that contained the details Zack had just summarized.

"Will you be taking any of us along?" he asked hoping he might be able to go.

"No, Zack. Not this time. It won't take me very long and there is a case I want you to take care of while I'm gone," explained Brennan andtold him of the case she and Booth had just received. He left to begin preparations for receiving the remains already on their way.

"I hope you find her, Bones," Booth said, reaching out to touch her shoulder gently.

Brennan responded to his gesture with a nod and appreciative smile as she scanned the report. His hand lingered a moment before he removed it. After a moment of reading, she put the papers on her desk.

"Booth, I know you have to get back to your office, but I wanted you to have a look at Anna's pictures before you go. I'll get a set copied for you, if you like. I'm sure she wouldn't mind," Brennan said as she picked up the folded collection of drawings from her desk.

Booth joined her on the office sofa to look at the pictures, one at a time. Each one had bright colours and an expressive detail that made it easy for the mind to retain a memorable image. The shocking and often violent nature caused thoughts of concern to arise in both of their minds. They were simultaneously thinking that Anna was too young to be exposed to such images, let alone have them come unbidden to her own mind.

None of them struck any chords of recognition for any case that either of them were aware of...except one. This one, a pleasant country landscape on a sunny day, was a scene of rolling hills and scattered copses of trees that surrounded an open area marked with rectangular shapes instantly recognised as a cemetery. In the foreground were three small crosses surrounding one large one. Two of the small crosses were pink and one was blue.

Brennan held one corner of the picture andBooth assisted on the other side as they both looked at it together. Exchanging a glance, Booth put his arm around her shoulders. Brennan leaned into him and accepted his offered comfort as emotions rose within her and her eyes became teary again against her will.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

By 6:30 am the next morning, Brennan was on her way to Salisbury, Pennsylvania. She awoke feeling only slightly stiff and sore from her recent injuries but was happy with her progress. After doing some low impact yoga exercises, she was happy to note that there was less discomfort than yesterday. She would have to remember to take a few breaks throughout the day to prevent stiffness from setting in. Her experience of many years reminded her that excavating remains could be exhausting physical work.

The trip itself wouldn't take long as Salisbury was only about 150 miles east of Washington, DC. She seemed oddly drawn to her destination and found herself enjoying the drive, at least once she was past the greater DC area. There was the usual early morning commuter traffic but she was used to that. She had always found long distance driving by herself to be relaxing and today's opportunity gave her the time to contemplate the events of the past few days.

Booth had offered to join her for the drive but there would have been nothing to occupy his time while she processed the remains that could take most of the day. This was something she needed to do on her own. Besides, he was still busy tying up loose ends on the bomber investigation. She had promised to call him when she returned to the city, hopefully that evening.

Given her day's mission, she was surprised at her own overall happy disposition this morning. Ever since her last visit with her father and brother, her mood had brightened as if a great weight had been lifted from her. She knew an equal portion of that feeling of well-being was due to her own changed feelings for Booth. She was still naturally inclined to be cautious but Angela's words the day before had caused her to re-evaluate her fears. They didn't seem to have the same importance and influence on her that they used to.

The thought came to her that their relationship hadn't really changed so much as she had feared. Their newly found intimacy was intimidating, true...but she was now more aware of the true foundation of what made them so successful together as partners and friends. She found herself smiling at these thoughts of him. The one fear she didn't know what to do about was the risk of losing their partnership. Logically, if she was truly honest with herself, that possibility could happen at any time on a whim of his boss or hers for that matter. It was, of course, unlikely but she had no delusions that their partnership was only as secure as their ability to solve crimes and provide the evidence for successful prosecution.

The day promised to be one of those pleasant spring time surprises.Signs of the new season could be seen everywhere from the city to her destination in the nearby mountains. It inspired remembrances of her mother planting bulbs and tending her garden in preparation for a botanical explosion of flowers in a riot of colours. Her mother's gardening philosophy had always been 'if a little was good then more was better".

She remembered with a chuckle how all the varieties their mother grew had driven her brother crazy every year due to his severe allergies. She hoped that he had been able to out-grow them, as commonly happened. She was comforted by these happy memories that were thankfully free of anguished emotions or feelings of loss.

She was headed into the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. This wasn't her first time travelling through the area although she had never stopped to take in the various attractions of the Allegheny mountains that had come highly recommended by several acquaintances. Its charms included scenic views of rolling hills, wandering rivers through picturesque historical villages, deep gorges and other interesting geological features. She remembered these fleetingly from her previous drives through the area. She had often travelled to exotic places to participate in sports like white water rafting and rock climbing that she knew could be found here, much closer to home.

The area was also famous for its Amish settlements. It wasn't until she was almost to the highway junction with the Mason Dixon Highway where she would have to turn north for the last few miles of her trip, that she encountered a few horse drawn carriages of Amish travellers.

Road signs every few miles advertised the products of one of the area's seasonal industries - maple syrup. It was the beginning of March and with spring about to arrive, the maple syrup season was in full swing. She would have to remember to pick some up as gifts for everyone. Especially Angela who, she remembered, was particularly fond of maple candy.

To familiarize herself with the region she had spent some time on the internet the night before and knew the basic details of the area's history. She was, of course, aware of the local connection to the events of 9/11. A strip mine near Shanksville 30 miles north of Salisbury had been the crash site of Flight 93. She had spent her time after 9/11 at New York's Ground Zero and had no part in the recovery efforts at the PA crash site.

As she neared her destination, she found her thoughts drifted back to her day's task. She was relieved to find her mind able to ground her emotions as thoughts of her lost baby sister now included the unknown stories of two other lives cut short by circumstance. She had a lot of practice in controlling her emotions and remaining objective during such cases. She wished she could say that this was her first occasion dealing with the remains of infants and young children, but it was not. She had almost lost count of the number of children she had been involved in identifying while working potentially emotion-laden and politically sensitive cases in South America and elsewhere over the past several years.

As she drove through the small community of Salisbury, she checked her notes on how to find her way to the farm site where her parents had lived. She had made arrangements to meet the local sheriff and the ME staff involved in the recovery efforts that resulted from her request to re-examine the area of her mother's grave. Following the instructions she received from the sheriff's office, she made her way through the last couple of miles of country roads to the farm.

Her bones and muscles were grateful when she finally left the rough road and entered the farm's yard to park behind a couple of vehicles that from their official decals and markings obviously did not belong to the farm's ubiquitous collection of abandoned vehicles and old agricultural equipment from the last hundred years. She left her car and seeing no one around used her memory of her dad's description of the farmhouse and relative location to the cemetery to find her way. She went past the old but still-occupied dilapidated house to the trail through the woods. She couldn't help but smile at the house's well cared for front garden beds that held an assortment of blooming spring bulbs. She had the fleeting thought that they may have been planted by her mother though she would never have seen them flower before her death as she had lived there for less than a year.

She quickly moved through the awakening forest growth along the shaded path towards voices heard in the distance. Soon she noticed a small gathering of people standing at the edge of the trees in the bright sunshine. As she came to the end of the path and walked into the sunshine herself, she heard a voice calling her name.

"Dr. Brennan, I presume," called a middle aged balding man of average height in a police uniform.

"Yes, you must be Sheriff Showalter?" she replied as she walked towards them.

The sheriff introduced the other members of the group. They included his deputy, John Welfley and two members of the Somerset County ME's office - a tall and lanky man named Paul Golightly and a petite blond woman named Janet Hay, both in there mid-twenties.

Brennan's reputation had unsurprisingly preceded her as the twoforensic assistants reacted to meeting her with deference and star struck awe. She still feltuncomfortable by this kind of reception even though it happened often at the many seminars and conferences that included her as a guest speaker or sessional instructor, let alone her growing fame as an author.

"I have been explaining to the others the unusual nature of the case you are working on," explained Sheriff Showalter. "Although the deaths of your mother and sister were many years ago, please accept my condolences for your loss, Dr. Brennan."

"Thank-you, Sheriff," she responded politely.

"Well, we need to get back into town now but don't hesitate to contact my office if you need anything," he said as he and his deputy waved goodbye and headed back down the trail to the farm.

Brennan took her first real look around the little graveyard that probably contained no more than 20 burials. It was situated on a little hill overlooking the valley with a beautiful view of the mountains to the west. It closely matched the details drawn in Anna's picture, right down to the layout of her mother's former grave site and the three discovered infant remains.

"Let me show you what we found," offered Karen Hay as she indicated a location down hill with the scattered evidence of numerous excavations throughout the search grid still in place. Paul Golightly busied himself with the task of closing the animal graves as there was no reason for these remains to be disturbed further.

One after another, Brennan inspected each of the three graves that now revealed their occupants in varying states of decomposition and formation of adipocere. The report she had received included the information that the water table of the area was relatively high due to a nearby spring. A mineral rich, oxygen free, wet environment were basic factors in the formation of the soap-like substance that resisted decomposition and mysteriously preserved a body's form.

Before embalming became a common practice, well preserved remains were usually due to either rapid removal of moisture with salts in a dry environmentas in Egyptian mummies or through the formation of adipocere transformed from a body's natural fats. This wasalso known as saponification for its soap-like appearance often seen in remains found in peat bogs. Given the right conditions, babies, young children and adults with a high percentage in body fat were likely candidates for being preserved in this manner.

One of the infants that coincided with the single blue cross on Anna's pictures only had its bones remaining embedded in soil among fragments of what was probably a wooden box. Brennan estimated that this was the oldest burial of the three finds and probably dated to the time of the field stone marker inscribed with "1879" that had been found nearby. As these remains were obviously beyond her search parameters, she informed Paul that they could be closed as well. There would also be a new marker placed at the grave so that records could identify it again in the future if need be.

The focus of her day was spent on the other two infants both well preserved and could both date from a few years to decades if not longer. Their disinterment along with the collection of soil samples and photographs took up the next several hours. When their respective work had been completed, the three of them agreed to meet for a late lunch in town before going their separate ways. Despite taking a couple of breaks as she had promised herself, by the time she was finished, Brennan could feel her body ache in protest.

After the two ME assistants left, Brennan found herself alone on the property for the first time. She stood at the entrance to the forest path and took in the panoramic view in front of her. Her concentration had relaxed with the completion of her task and now thoughts of her parents ordeal surfaced in her mind. She discovered that feelings of sadness and loss had not completely left her.

As she stood in that one spot, she remembered the times she had visited her mother's new grave with Angela and Booth. Both of them had expected her to be able to gain some insight or comfort by going through some introspective ritual of remembrance. None of her visits ever resulted in her feeling any different afterwards. The thought now occurred to her that perhaps she had simply been in the wrong place.

Her emotions had stayed easily in check all day but as she was about to leave, she could feel tears sting her eyes. At the same time, there was also a sense of peace and resolution as well. She knew that this place had more significance in her mother's life than just being a resting place after her death. She could appreciate the tranquil nature and intrinsic beauty of the place and understood how her mother had been drawn to it.

With most of her tools, equipment and the infant remains already packed securely in her car, she gathered the last few items and returned to the farmyard along the forest path for the last time.

Just as she was about to get into her car to drive away, she was startled by the call of a wolf in the distance. The mournful sound at first caused a frisson of fear as if she were back in her old nightmare. Brennan laughed at herself and any feelings of fear or apprehension evaporated as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

The only thought in her mind as she drove away to catch up with her two young colleagues waiting for her in town was, "Good-bye, Mom. I love you, too."

I highly recommend reading the poem, "The Recording of a Cemetery" by Thelma Green Reagan. It is easily found by Googling. I won't include the text here as I'm unsure of its copyright status but feel that it fits very well with the sentiments of this story.

Marte


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Brennan thought longingly of a quick meal and an early bed then she arrived back at the lab that evening. She moved the disinterred infant remains and collected samples to a refrigerated locker near the platform. Her desk was the next to receive her attention. She checked messages and prioritized the current projects piled in her in-basket and was relieved there were no new files from the FBI.

That would mean Booth had probably not been in. She had planned to call him when she got home to check on any developments in the case and to fill him in on her day. Early on in their partnership, they had established the habit of speaking most evenings if they weren't actually in each other's company. Her resolve on that front was weakening with every thought. All of her best reasons for keeping their relationship the same had been reduced to momentary fears easily reasoned away. "Oh, stop mooning," she berated herself and refocused with difficulty on the task in front of her.

Before she could let herself go home, she wanted to get a head start on the DNA tests for the two remains. The lab was fortunate to have its own "state of the art" equipment able to perform several of the currently accepted techniques. The only drawback was that the tests were expensive, took time to produce their results and involved reams of paperwork. With her desk as organized as it was going to get, she returned to the storage area to retrieve two samples for testing and completed their accompanying requisition forms. Hopefully the lab staff could get started on the tests first thing the next morning with results by the end of the day.

Of the techniques at her disposal, the logical choice for her purposes was the test that sequenced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Mitochondria, small structures within every cell was unique in that it preserved DNA passed along the generations through maternal lines of inheritance exclusively. This would serve to definitively prove if either sample had a familial connection to her mother and to Russ and herself. She was fortunate to already have the genetic sequences for her entire family but, of course, for this test her father's would not be needed.

She had completed the tasks she had felt were most important and was more than ready to go home. She had just grabbed her bag and jacket when her cell phone rang. She dug it out of her jacket pocket. The display told her it was Booth.

"Hey, Bones. Are you home yet or are you still on the highway playing chicken with the truckers?" asked Booth, trying to be humourous.

"Yes, I'm back. Don't know what chickens have to do with it. If you're making a comment on my driving skills, I'm an excellent driver. I'm not the one who has to be constantly reminded to look at the road. Actually, I'm just leaving my office to go home. I'm exhausted and hungry," replied Brennan, stifling a yawn.

She knew, of course, what playing chicken was. She remembered Russ coming home with cuts and bruises a few times when he was 11 or 12. He and a friend had decided it was cool to test their skills in a friendly contest by playing chicken on their bikes. He came home one day with road rash on his chin and a chipped front tooth. As soon as their parents found out, he got grounded for two weeks.. Whenever their father brought up the incident, he liked to call Russ' punishment "stupid tax". Brennan was in full agreement with her parents as she had always found such displays of testosterone pointless and ridiculous.

"Good, I was just on my way home myself with a huge order of Thai...all our favorites. You know how I hate to eat alone. I'll be there in 5 minutes," said Booth obviously pleased to find her back in the city.

"All right, Booth. I'll see you in a few minutes," Brennan said, with a chuckle. She had just enough time to retrieve some paper plates and utensils from the staff lunch room before she recognized the sound of his footsteps approaching her office.

"So, is there anything new with our bomber?" Brennan said as she took the large bag of takeout food from his loaded arms when he entered. She placed the bag on the coffee table and sat on the sofa to unpack its contents. He took off his jacket and laid it over the back of a chair and sat down beside her. They each grabbed a paper plate and proceeded to load them with the aromatic food.

"Well, we got a confession from him for what its worth. All the evidence is fairly conclusive but he refused to say anything to implicate Graves. He said he bought the fingers from an orderly at the hospital but he wouldn't identify who or how he even knew about them. We have him on surveillance video at the hospital a couple days after Graves' so called accident. None of the staff at Graves' residence have identified Walters as ever being a visitor or seen on the premises. We did confirm Walters was "in the system" temporarily in his teens but he wasn't assigned to Graves. We can only assume they had contact. His psych evaluation is scheduled for next Monday. I hope he passes so we can charge him for murder and his other crimes."

After a pause to eat a few mouthfuls, he continued, "He hasn't revealed a specific motive for targeting the bookstore other than practice. He said he didn't intend to kill his cousin but didn't seem too torn up about it. We found that he had a couple of arson charges that got conveniently wiped from his juvenile record. That would have been the only way he got as far as he did with the fire department. Probably family connections helped him along until he got himself kicked out of the department."

A few minutes later while both of them were helping themselves to a noodle dish at the same time, their spoonfuls resulted in being connected by a long section of the same noodle.

"Looks like we have a revival of "Lady & the Tramp," Booth said with his characteristic twinkling eyes and smile.

"You look a little wrinkled, Booth, but I wouldn't describe you as a vagrant," Brennan observed. She simply used a fork to break the adjoining noodle and moved her portion to her plate.

Booth frowned slightly and looked himself over. "That's classic Disney, Bones. Don't tell me you've never seen 'Lady & the Tramp'."

"Yes, Booth, I've seen that movie. I may have been culturally deprived as a teenager but before my parents left I did have a normal childhood, all things considered," she replied. "In fact, that was one of our favorites. I'll bet I know as much about it as you do."

Although chagrined by the reminder of Brennan's difficult teen years, Booth couldn't pass up a challenge. His face took on a sly expression in anticipation of the contest.

"Well, I don't know, Let's see. In fair warning, I'll have to tell you that Parker has recently discoveredthis movie and I've had to suffer throughat least a dozen viewings of itin the last few months," Booth said. He looked at Bones directly and tried to gauge her level of confidence.

"Okay, Here's an easy one. True or false: A man gave his wife a wicker basket containing Lady as a birthday present," Booth started.

Brennan thought for a fraction of a second before saying, "False. Lady was a Christmas present and was wrapped in a large round hat box." Knowing she was right, she went on with her question for Booth. "What kind of dog was Trusty and what was his job when he was younger?"

Oh, oh! She did know the movie. He always appreciated a contest with a worthy opponent.

"Trusty was a bloodhound who worked with his grandfather, Old Reliable as a scent dog tracking criminals through swamps. He had to stop working when he lost his sense of smell," came Booth's correct answer.

His next question was "Who died, Pedro or Trusty, by getting run over by the dog catcher's wagon when they were trying to rescue Tramp?"

"Nobody, Trusty was supposed to but Disney vetoed the scene because of the public response to the death of Bambi's mother. He made the animators include him in the Christmas scene at the end so everyone would know that he had survived." Brennan said easily.

"Ah, hah! Got you!" he said triumphantly.

"That's correct. I know it is," Brennan protested.

"True, but you wouldn't know about Disney's decision by watching the movie as a kid," Booth said, "That means I caught you studying."

"Okay but I always knew he didn't die. I discovered IMDB on the internet a while ago and, yes, I looked it up. What's wrong with that? So how did you know Trusty was supposed to die?" Brennan asked.

"It was in the movie's voice over commentary," he answered sheepishly. He believed that it was "nerdy" to listen to the commentary option on DVD's. In his defense, he said, "Parker was playing with the remote and got the settings messed up. I was working on something in the kitchen so wasn't really paying attention until he asked me to fix it."

Brennan started laughing although her ribs protested her jerky movements.

"Okay, okay, I concede defeat. The next time Parker insists on watching that movie, I'm bringing him over to your place. You have that brand new giant plasma tv I noticed the other night going to waste. I meant to ask you when you got that," Booth said.

"I got it after Christmas. A full set of Disney movies came with the deal so I have been honesty watching them." Brennan explained.

Booth started laughing with her and put his arm around her shoulders. Brennan tried to laugh with him but had to wrap her arms around her ribs.

"Booth, stop...making me laugh...it hurts," she tried to say between giggles and breathing deeply to ease the painful jabs.

Booth leaned towards her, cupped her cheek with his free hand and kissed her gently. He pulled back a moment to let her catch her breath and to look into her eyes for any indication that he should stop. Brennan had felt an electric shock as their lips touched leaving a tingling sensation that spread down her spine. In answer to his unspoken question, she laid her hand on his warm chest feeling his rapid heartbeat before moving it to the back of his neck to pull him closer to continue their kiss. Her other hand entwined itself in his thick hair.

He claimed her lips again hungrily with a moan as if this contact was really the only nourishment he needed and had waited for so long. This time, he could not doubt her level of consciousness. Her passionate response equaled or rivaled his own with an intensity only glimpsed at before during their other intimate moments. His hand moved from her cheek to feel her long hair glide through his fingers.

Brennan had always believed that sexual attraction and love were just the workings of body chemistry but discovered that knowing this did not make her immune to its affect on her. The taste of his kisses and the combined smell of his aftershave, shampoo and his natural musk seemed to be like fuel to a fire inside her. At the moment she didn't care why it worked, just that she felt good and safe and never wanted the feeling to end.

She murmured into his ear, "So much for professional decorum."

Booth chuckled between long passion laden kisses. "So what happened to your reservations about us?" he asked, hoping his question didn't jinx their current closeness.

"I'm still taking them under conditional advisement," she said softly.

"Any conditions I should know about?" he asked with their lips barely an inch apart.

"As soon as I can come up with a condition I can't talk myself out of, I will advise you. I'm still afraid of some of the things I mentioned before but not enough to throw away this chance to be with you," she said with a happy contented smile. "I may not believe in love but it seems to believe in me."

"You know I love you and you have my love as long as I live... but life is hazardous. There are always things I can't control..." he said but was interrupted by a slender finger placed on his lips to silence them.

"I know. I'll take every moment I can have," she said as she wrapped her arms tightly around him and rested her cheek on his shoulder. "That's all I could think about while I was out at Salisbury."

Booth had been expecting Bones to say something about her day but hadn't wanted to ask. She leaned back and Booth reached over to hold her hand.

"You know all those times you or Angela would take me out to visit my mother's grave? I simply went through the motions I thought were expected of me. But truly, I felt nothing different and it seemed that you both thought I was just doing something wrong. I realized today that those times at the grave site, I was thinking of my mother as dead. I mean I was standing on her buried bones. Hell, I had handled all of them. They were just bones like the thousands of others I have held and there was nothing left of who my mother was," Brennan paused, as she wiped the tears that had started to roll down her cheeks. She laughed as Booth helped by dabbing her cheek with a paper napkin.

"Booth, it wasn't until Dad explained their life on that farm waiting for the birth of my sister that I suddenly felt connected to her again in life...her life, not her death. I saw spring flowers that might have been planted by her own hand in a flower bed at the farm house. Dad told us that Mom loved living there and wandered in the woods and grounds of the cemetery every day. It is a beautiful place that overlooks the valley with the mountains in the distance. I could almost imagine her there."

"That little cemetery beside the house wasn't just the place where she buried the baby or where her body was left when she died. It was a place that held a part of her life as well. It was almost like all those years being separated from her were gone and I had just caught up with her. When I left the farm this afternoon, I swear I could feel her love around me. You and Angela were right. You just didn't know the right place was just as important. Oh, and I'm sure you won't be surprised that Anna's picture was a perfect match."

All Booth could do was lean over and kiss her gently and hold her in his arms. He hadn't realized until that moment how much the events of this week had affected him as well. He had started just wanting to be with Bones through whatever happened duringthe aftermath of the explosion. Meeting that extraordinary little girl had gotten to him as well. The message from his grandfather had tested his faith but in a good way. He had trusted for so many years that his blind faith in God was not in vain but, in all honesty, he thought he would have to die himself to get proof that his faith wasn't misplaced.

The focus in recent years had been trying to relieve his guilt and atone for his perceived sins, mostly while he was a soldier. Apart from the birth of his son, he hadn't seen a miracle that proved God existed. A message from a four year old was like getting a telegram from God himself. This revealed a reality he would never have expected and wasn't really prepared for.

Booth suddenly realised that he held a yawning exhausted woman in his arms in danger of falling asleep there. Not altogether a bad prospect but not here in her office.

"Bones, you need to go home and sleep," he said giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Brennan smiled sleepily and got up to clean up the remains of the food, re-packed the leftovers for Booth to take home and threw away the rest. Within moments, they were ready to leave. Booth walked Bones to her car. The cold evening air perked her up sufficiently to be able to drive herself home safely.

They said "Good night" to each other with a kiss. Booth watched as she drove away before getting into his car to head home as well.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Friday morning found Brennan at her desk before 7 am, well before the arrival of the rest of the lab's other staff. She was pleased that the next person to arrive for work was the Institute's geneticist who ran the sequencing equipment. Her request was graciously approved to have her two samples placed at the top of the day's priority list.

Everyone on staff knew the significance of these remains and, if at all possible, were happy to be helpful. The mtDNA test would answer her personal question regarding the origins of hopefully one of the infants, but she reminded herself to treat both of them like any other set of unidentified remains under investigation.

The others trailed in soon after carrying coffee and a bag or two of donuts. As there were no other cases besides the two infants and Limbo cases, Brennan had no trouble getting approval from Cam to put the others to work on the infant remains. The personal aspect for Brennan was incidental to the fact that the infants were a development from a previous Limbo case that just happened, by coincidence, to be her mother. Brennan's relationship with her supervisor had sometimes been strained but, in this instance, she was happy to accept Cam's heartfelt support for the search for her sister.

Hodgins began work on soil samples and trace evidence while she and Zack examined the remains arbitrarily designated for convenience as Infant "A" and Infant "B". X-rays, MRI scans and other procedures were completed first so that a virtual set of tissue markers on temporary computer models of the skulls would enable Angela to start on facial reconstructions. Her results would then be aged to produce images that would be able to show discernible features. Her completed images would then be compared to the actual skulls once the bones had been cleaned by Zack's flesh eating beetles.

She chose Infant "B" that was the smaller of the two wrinkled, soil-stained and disturbingly doll-like remains, leaving the other for Zach to process. Her choice was consistent with her father's story of a premature birth between 7 and 8 months gestation. Fibers were collected that on examination would match fabric remnants found in the soil supporting the assumption that they were each wrapped or clothed before burial. One of the first details established in both cases was that they were female and had been either stillborn or died close to the time of their births due to the attached remains of their umbilical cords.

It was almost noon and Brennan and Zach had just finished their examinations when the sound of footsteps walking up to the platform filtered through their concentration. They both looked up to see Booth standing at the top of the stairs, apparently not wanting to approach any closer and looked a few shades paler than usual. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw him cross himself and mutter. She remembered that recitation of a verse know as a "Hail Mary" often accompanied the movement of his hand. She understood the sentiment of his reaction to seeing the infant remains on the tables but didn't have the luxury of keeping her distance. She often used her concentration and attention to detail to mask any emotional reaction she might have to the subjects that appeared on her examination table.

"Hey, Bones, ummm... I'll just wait for you in your office after...ummm, I have to update Cam anyway," he said hesitantly before he turned and walked back down the stairs. He swiped his keycard quickly to complete his escape. Seeing dead babies always made him feel off-balance and queasy. The images inevitably got mixed up in his mind with the joyful memories of his son at that age.

Brennan exchanged a sympathetic smile with him as he left and said," Okay, we're almost done here. Zach's just about to take them to be cleaned."

"Don't need to know that, Bones," he called from the ground level corridor as he walked to his meeting with Cam. The last thing he needed was the mental image of Zach's beetles at work on the tiny remains.

Half an hour later, Booth entered her office to see Bones seated at her desk frowning at her paperwork. She looked up and got caught in the snare of his brown eyes and electric smile. He did one of his famous lean-ins over her desk and stopped several inches from her face.

"Let me cash in my raincheck from last Monday and take you out for lunch," he said, searching her face.

She responded with a smile of her own, met his gaze a few inches closer and said,"Sounds like a good idea."

She got up from her desk, grabbed her stuff and took a few steps ahead of Booth towards the doorway. He reached for her arm and pulled her back into his arms for a kiss that took her breath away and sent tingles down to her toes.

"Sorry, I couldn't wait any longer," Booth said when they separated, both breathless. He knew she was serious about their proper conduct at work which he, of course, agreed with in principle.

"We haven't got a chance of hiding this for long from Angela and the others but are you worried about Cullen?" she asked from her comfortable position within the circle of his arms.

"It would be nice to avoid the conversation for as long as possible," Booth acknowledged. "With him, it's more of a 'don't ask, don't tell' kind of situation and as long as nothing embarrassing gets back to him, we should be okay for a while."

"I'm fine with that. How about you?" she asked quietly.

"It could be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Almost as hard as letting you carry a gun," he said with mock seriousness tempered with his customary twinkle and smirk. He grimaced with pain as she stood on his shoes to kiss him with a gleam in her own eyes.

"Lunch is going to cost you for that, Agent Booth. The Diner's not good enough," she said with an evil little chuckle. She stepped off his smarting toes and pushed a laughing Booth out of her office and continued herding him towards the lab's main doors.

Unbeknownst to Booth and Brennan, their entire intimate and playful display had been observed by the rest of the 'squints' from their vantage point along the edge of the platform near Brennan's office. Hodgins and Zack wore shocked expressions while Angela beamed with the satisfaction of a matchmaking campaign progressing more or less on schedule.

By the end of the day, Infant "B" was confirmed as being Brennan's sister, Elizabeth. The first evidence found came from one of the soil samples that contained a tarnished silver dolphin charm and the remains of a few links from the chain. As soon as Hodgins found it, he grabbed Angela to be with him when he presented the evidence to Brennan on the platform where she had begun work on another Limbo case. When she saw Hodgins approach with Angela in tow, she knew what was coming. She was about to learn the answer to a question raised moments before her world blew up four days ago.

Silently, Hodgins handed the metal tray of necklace fragments and tarnished silver. She looked at the tray's contents. She said a soundless,"Oh!" and looked up at Hodgins for the answer to her unspoken question.

"B" he said quietly. Her composure crumbled for the first time that day. She carefully placed the tray on the nearest table with a trembling hand. Hodgins was then surprised to receive a quick hug from her and a whispered, "Thank-you," before she moved to Angela to do the same. Brennan then rushed off the platform without swiping her card and caused a short flurry of activity from the posted guard who hastily reported her false alarm.

Brennan sat in her office chair to pull herself together while she looked at her mother's picture that always sat on her desk. A few minutes later, Angela entered and handed her two pieces of paper. One contained the results of the mtDNA test that confirmed the evidence Hodgins found. The other was her facial reconstruction drawing of "B" made by hand from the 3-D results her calculations had created in the Angelator. It showed a little girl of about 5 years old with strong features of her own but was undeniably the daughter of Ruth Keenan and sister to Brennan. Angela reached over to give her friend's hand a squeeze and left the office to leave her in peace.

Angela saw Booth entering the Lab and stopped him to quickly fill him in on the recent events.

"Should I go in?" he asked her.

"She was almost seventeen when they died. Don't you think she's been alone with this long enough," Angela said and urged him with expressive hand motions to get moving.

From the same viewpoint as earlier that day, Hodgins, Angela and Zach watched as a teary eyed Brennan stood up from her desk and rushed into Booth's arms as soon as he entered her office. After a moment, Angela silently shooed Hodgins and Zach away as all three returned to their individual workstations.

THREE WEEKS LATER...

The lab had still not made any headway in identifying Infant "A" when they received an official request to have the remains returned to Salisbury authorities. A member of the public, an elderly woman in her 70's had come forward to claim them. She had apparently become quite distraught when she had visited the little cemetery and found evidence that her long dead child had been dug up. She confessed to having been an unwed teenaged mother when her baby had been a stillbirth and at that time so long ago, had not wanted to be subjected to her community's censure. Since the woman was not financially able to properly rebury her daughter, Brennan made a generous donation to the Salisbury's cemetery maintenance fund and paid for the reburial at the original resting place of Infant "A" who, as it turned out, did have a name. Her mother had named her Henriette.

Brennan had her sister's remains inserted into her mother's casket and replaced the headstone with one that could include the addition of her sister's name and year of death. Russ was expected to be released from prison on parole sometime in the next month or two. When that date was known, they would plan a small memorial gathering for family and their close friends. She recognised that some of her society's rituals were useful and an opportunity to say goodbye to those who had died was an important one that she would honor.

She only regretted that there was no way that prison authorities would ever risk allowing her father to join them. The only gesture she could make was to give him a copy of Angela's drawing. When she gave it to him, it brought him to tears when he saw it. She knew that he was thankful for the gift and was instructed to thank Angela for her beautiful work. She would give one to Russ as well.

On the day of her sister's memorial, a few weeks after Russ' release and his wedding to Amy, her family and friendsmet at the gravesite for a small service of remembrance that Russ and Brennan had created between themselves. Afterwards they all went to the prison to spend time with Max. They had been able to arrange for use of the same trailer as the previous Christmas. One of the special arrangements that they were able to make was to play a friendly game of baseball in the prison's recreational area.

Booth and Parker came too. It had taken a long time for Booth to convince Rebecca to let Parker join them at the prison but she eventually agreed. Parker brought his new prized possession. The previous weekend had been his birthday spent at his Grandma and Grandpa Booth's house. While there, Booth had retrieved his grandfather'sglove from his brother's toy chest in the attic just where Anna had said it was. Booth was overjoyed that Parker was thrilled with his new gift and even liked the story about it having been passed on from his dad's grandfather.

Brennan had been a little nervous before hand but had to admit that it was one of the best days of her life.

SIX MONTHS LATER...

Brennan sat at her desk late one night at the Lab trying to finish a chapter of her latest book. Thinking of her plot dilemma, she rested her chin on her hand. After a moment, she was startled to hear the happy sounds of giggling children at play. She looked up to see a little girl about five years old with shoulder length brown hair and familiar facial features standing in her doorway.

"Hi, Tempe," she said shyly with a smile.

"Come on, Beth. I want to show you something," came a far away voice.

"Anna, wait up," the little girl called, looking behind her.

The little girl gave Brennan a little wave and ran down the hall. The laughter of several children faded away as Brennan woke with a start. She got up from her desk and went to check the hall outside her office. There was nothing to see and even listening carefully resulted in only normal office sounds. With nothing to explain her experience, she returned to her desk. She looked at the framed pictures of her mother and sister on her desk and instantly recognised the little girl she saw as Beth.

Smiling to herself, sheturned off her computer, grabbed her things and quickly made the decision to go home. Hallucinations were known to occur as a result of stress, overwork and a lack of sleep. That's it. She just needed some sleep.

She arrived home and soon crawled into bed. She snuggled up to the warm body next to her. He turned to wrap his arms around her and kissed her with a feather touch as if from a dream.

"Goodnight, Bones," he whispered. "Night, Booth," she said.


End file.
